Disclaimer: I don't own 'Stargate Atlantis' or any related concepts or characters; you know the drill by now. Also, the basic details of the plot were inspired by 'The Phantom of the Opera', although I have naturally put my own spin on things; hope it meets with your approval
Feedback: Always appreciated, trust me
The Phantom of Atlantis
Even as he moved through the tight air ducts and maintenance tunnels of Atlantis- tunnels he'd only ever expected to have to use in the event of a Wraith attack on the city itself; even as he hated how cramped they were, a part of him couldn't help but be grateful that he'd made it a daily part of his training schedule to go through at least one of these things every day to make sure he could use them easily-, the mind behind the silver mask that served as his most distinctive feature for the last decade or so was racing to consider whether his plan would work.
Based on what he'd overheard during the radio conversation between McKay and Elizabeth, it sounded like only the cockpit was actually inside the event horizon, with the door between the forward and aft sections remaining completely outside the Stargate itself. On the encouraging side, that at least meant that if the wormhole shut down before he could manage to try anything, it was still possible that those in the aft section could survive if they kept the door shut until another puddle jumper- McKay and the rest of the expedition members could call them 'gateships' as much as they wanted; to him they would always be puddle jumpers- could get through the Stargate to get them back through to Atlantis.
Of course, how they'd manage to pull that off was a problem; nudging it manually was too uncertain, and rewiring the cloaking device to generate a force field that could be used to tow them back would take too long even if somebody here had discovered how to do that before now, particularly he couldn't think of a way to let Elizabeth know about that feature without putting her in an even more awkward position than he already had.
He was grateful that she'd accepted him enough not to let Sumner know about the shield device he'd given her, of course, but he was equally aware that just doing that much had put her in a difficult position; after all, officially she was meant to report any kind of information about him to the military commander to aid in the search for him that was currently taking place.
He was grateful that she hadn't done so, of course, but that still didn't change the fact that she'd put herself at risk simply to help him; he wouldn't- he couldn't- do anything else that might jeopardise her position.
No, with no other means of helping the expedition without actually going up to a scientist and telling them what to do face-to-face, he was going to have to simply take a chance and hope that the mental picture he'd created of the jumper's current situation- more specifically, the idea that only the front part of the engines had managed to get into the event horizon- was accurate.
If the jumper was too far into the wormhole, this plan was never going to work, and all he'd have accomplished for this effort would be sore elbows and leaving him in a position where it would be relatively easy to capture him…
As Elizabeth walked rapidly into the conference room, she looked resolutely around at the scientists who had already gathered together. If nothing else, she had to admire their dedication; they'd been in this city for barely a couple of weeks yet and already the scientists knew the best routes to get from one point to another at short notice.
"All right," she said, looking around the room as she spoke to make sure everyone was present; she'd been occupied with making sure that there was nothing the technicians could do at their end to help the group, and so hadn't had the opportunity to make a head count. "You've all been briefed; we have less than half an hour."
Having finished her brief glance, she raised a curious eyebrow at the absence of one of the staff. "Where's Doctor Zelenka?"
"He's working up a simulation in Gateship Two; he went straight there," one of the scientists- Kavanagh, Elizabeth recalled his name was; she still had a little trouble matching the names on her various reports with the faces she saw in the corridors- said.
"That's good," she said, allowing herself a brief moment of satisfaction at the knowledge that one of
"If there was time, it would be," Kavanagh interjected, sounding briefly frustrated even as he turned his attention back to the papers that he currently held in his hands; Elizabeth briefly noted that they contained what diagrams the expedition had been able to make of the gateships during their admittedly limited opportunities to examine them up to this point (Nobody was particularly eager to risk doing anything to such fascinating pieces of technology until they were certain that they knew what they were doing, so research had been limited to avoid accidentally causing long-term damage to the ships).
For a moment, Elizabeth simply stood in silence as she glared at Kavanagh, making her disdain for the implications of his last statement clear before she finally spoke.
"Let's not admit defeat just yet, Doctor; there are six people on that ship," she informed him coldly, ignoring his annoyed expression as she turned around to look at the rest of the gathered scientists in case they had any further suggestions to offer.
"I'm just the medical doctor here, so forgive me if this is a stupid question," Beckett's voice suddenly broke in from off to the side. "If they just stepped through the event horizon, wouldn't they come through the front part of the ship when the gate shuts down?"
"The front half won't rematerialize on this side," Kavanagh promptly responded (Normally Elizabeth would have commended his prompt assessment of the situation, but the fact that he'd started speaking almost as soon as Beckett had finished his sentence limited any potential pride in his actions; for all that Kavanagh could have known Beckett might have still wanted to say something).
"The Stargate transmits matter in discrete units," Grodin continued (Elizabeth noted, much to her approval, that he at least gave Kavanagh a moment to continue if he had anything else to say before speaking himself. "The front half of the ship cannot re-materialize until the whole ship has crossed into the event horizon. The Stargate is essentially waiting for the contiguous components- meaning the gateship and everyone inside- to enter completely before it can transport them."
For a moment, Beckett simply stared at Grodin, before he turned his attention to look inquiringly at Elizabeth.
"He says the gate only sends things through in one piece," she clarified.
"Right," Beckett said, sounding like he wished he had never spoken in the first place. "Sorry."
"Unfortunately," Grodin continued as he turned to face her, drawing her attention back to the matter at hand- normally Elizabeth would have apologized to Beckett for the rather abrupt dismissal, but the current situation was their more immediate problem right now-, "the outgoing Stargate won't transmit the matter stream until the demolecularization is complete. When it shuts down, the entire forward section- along with the men inside- will cease to exist."
"And what about the others?" Elizabeth asked, already knowing that she wouldn't like the answer she was about to receive.
"The ship will be severed instantaneously along the event horizon," Grodin said, his expression grim as he delivered the news Elizabeth had been hoping not to hear. "They'll be exposed to hard vacuum… in twenty-nine minutes."
For a moment, there was silence as Elizabeth and the rest of the room grimly contemplated the fate that awaited Atlantis's military commander and his team, before Doctor Simpson- one of the younger female scientists- spoke up.
"What if they closed the bulkhead door?" she asked, indicating the feature in question on a gateship diagram in front of her.
Elizabeth could have kicked herself for not thinking of that solution herself; it was so obvious…
"The rear portion of the ship would remain pressurized; become a sort of lifeboat," she said, looking at the younger woman with an approving smile.
"It will leak atmosphere like a sieve," the man who was rapidly becoming her unofficial assistant countered from behind her, his tone making it clear that he doubted the reliability of that last suggestion.
"It could buy enough time to send a second gateship-," Simpson continued.
"And do what?" Kavanagh interjected.
"Figure it out," Weir said briefly, cutting off any further argument as she glared momentarily at Kavanagh before she turned to look at Grodin. "Contact gateship one and make the recommendation."
"Yes, Doctor," Grodin said, standing up and heading over to the control room.
"Keep brainstorming down here," Elizabeth continued, turning to look at the rest of the room as she indicated the door behind her. "I'm going to see if Doctor Zelenka's managed to come up with anything yet."
After receiving confirming nods from the rest of the staff, Elizabeth stood up and walked out of the conference, quickly heading for the stairs that led to the gateship bay. Having arrived in the gateship bay, she glanced around the room for a moment before she identified the illuminated form of Gateship Two, currently rotated in the hanger so that the exit hatch was facing inwards rather than the cockpit. A quick glance inside the ship was all that she needed to confirm that Zelenka was there, studying some of the control crystals located in the roof of the back section of the ship while a couple of the other scientists took notes on a laptop and studied the walls for anything else that they could use.
"Můžeš mi dát ty nejnovější data, prosim?" Elizabeth heard Zelenka's voice say as she approached the ship."Já se s tímhle nemůžu hnout."
Quickly going over that sentence in her head- Czech, unfortunately, wasn't one of the languages she knew, but she'd gathered enough about it to understand the basics at least-, Elizabeth gathered that Zelenka was still having some problems processing all the data that he and the team had uncovered so far, but she took some comfort in the knowledge that he was at least making an effort.
"Doctor Zelenka?" she asked as she entered the gateship, prompting the Czech scientist to briefly glance down in her direction before he returned his attention to the matter at hand.
"Apologies for not attending your briefing, Dr Weir; there was no time," he said briskly, pausing in his work to make a few notes on the electronic pad he held in his hands.
"I don't want to slow you down," Elizabeth said, as she walked around Zelenka to better watch him as she spoke, "but I need to know what you're working on so I can communicate it to the team on Gateship one."
"We are," Zelenka replied, his attention still focused on the panel before him even as he spoke to her, "attempting to retract the., um…the, er… the gt… the drive pod back into the fuselage, from inside the rear compartment."
"Anything yet?" she asked hopefully, aware even as she spoke that it was a fairly pointless question; if there had been any such discoveries made he would have told her about them already.
"Well," the Czech said, clearly wanting to give her something even as he continued to study the machinery before him, "there is much redundancy in Ancient technology, making it dangerous for them to experiment with it in this way…"
"So they might accidentally open the rear hatch or shut life support off entirely?" Elizabeth asked, wanting to make sure that she understood the risks of the current situation before she returned to the other scientists; right now, with her traditional field of expertise relatively useless in solving the current crisis, anything she could bring to the table would feel good right now.
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, which is why we are attempting to isolate the correct control pathway," Zelenka relied, tapping at one of the crystals before him with his tool before he noted the results on his pad.
"Understood," she replied, nodding slightly at him. "What could I do to help?"
"Stop talking, please," the Czech scientist replied briskly, even as the slight smile that accompanied those words significantly detracted from what could otherwise have been a harsh statement. As he turned his attention back to the panel, Elizabeth simply shrugged and walked away from the gateship; the sooner Doctor Zelenka could get back to focusing on the matter at hand, the more likely it was that he'd find a solution to get the gateship back to Atlantis before it was cut in half.
Right now, the best thing that she could do would be to get back to the conference room and see if anyone there had managed to come up with anything during her absence.
Down in the room that housed the main control chair of Atlantis, the single Marine currently on guard duty- ever since the Phantom's presence had been confirmed, Sumner had insisted that vital areas of the city receive at least a basic measure of protection to prevent the man from trying anything- never noticed the silent figure that crept up from behind him, dressed all in black, before the new arrival struck the marine on the back of the neck and sent him into unconsciousness.
Looking down at the figure currently sprawled on the ground before him, he couldn't help but wish that this kind of measure hadn't been necessary; it was going to create even more difficulties for him in the future if he started attacking members of the expedition just to achieve his own goals, even if they benefited the expedition itself…
But, at the same time, he knew that he'd had to do it. He was well aware that there might be some people among the expedition who didn't share Colonel Sumner's belief that he needed to be captured in case his continued independent status unintentionally jeopardised the expedition's own plans, but he couldn't take the chance that this man was one of them. If he wasn't able to gain access to the control chair, than what might be the gateship team's last chance to get back alive would be lost before it had even been attempted, and with only- he glanced at the watch of the man lying before him- approximately twenty-eight minutes left before the Stargate automatically shut down, he didn't have the time to try and convince the marine to let him try it.
Call him impatient, but he'd rather not wait until the last minute to try and get the gateship through the Stargate…
Even as he began to move towards the control chair, however, he raised one hand to the ear holding his 'acquired' (It wasn't stolen; nobody had been using it when he'd taken it, so how could it be stolen?) radio and turned it on, the radio automatically tuning in to the radio link currently open between the gateship and the control room; if he was going to guide the gateship through, he was going to at least get an idea of the situation at the other end before he tried anything.
"-did it attach itself?" Doctor Beckett's voice said over the line; instinctively he lowered his breathing and tried his best to remain silent, recalling past experiences when he'd been temporarily trapped on board Wraith hive ships and stealth had been a requirement of his long-term survival.
"Well…" Sumner's voice replied weakly- evidently the Iratus bug was really starting to get to him-, "we were on our way back to the gateship, with the Wraith shooting at us… I told the others to get moving while I bought them time…"
For a moment, as Sumner continued speaking he tuned out the other man's voice, preferring to think more about what he'd just heard; he couldn't do anything to directly help with the central problem of getting the bug off Sumner's neck without risking capture at least, and the medical side of things was never his strong point anyway.
Besides, right now he had a more immediate question to answer; what would a Wraith patrol be doing on a planet that they'd have presumably abandoned as soon as they'd confirmed that the hive ship's presence there had been compromised? Even if the Wraith were aware that the Expedition weren't actual Ancients, they would at least know that another Ancient-technology-controlling power had entered the Pegasus galaxy, and, with them now aware that the location of at least one hive-ship had been compromised, they wouldn't want to stick around if they could help it.
It was one of the main reasons why he'd only managed to take out around five hive-ships over the last decade or so; although his recon missions provided him with everything he needed to know about the ship's weaknesses, he always had to be sure to strike the ship in such a manner as to eliminate the Keeper and the ship practically simultaneously, or at least to do enough damage to the ship to prevent the Wraith's psychic network 'transmitting' the news of the attack and prompting the rest of the ships to activate…
And he was getting off-topic right now; the reasons why he hadn't managed to destroy more hive-ships weren't important. What was important was figuring out how the Wraith had known that the team were on the planet at that point- and they had to have known the team were there; there was no other way to account for the presence of a Wraith team on a planet that clearly lacked for any other form of life that the Wraith could use for food- and, with that knowledge, working out a means to prevent it from happening again…
Even as he settled into the control chair, keeping it on standby until he was ready to use it- there was no sense in tipping the expedition off to his presence until he was ready to do what he had to do-, his mind was rapidly racing through all the possible explanations for what might have happened to draw the Wraith to that planet at that time.
As Elizabeth walked past the control room, she barely even registered Beckett's attempts to figure out a means of dealing with the insect that was currently strapped to Colonel Sumner's neck; as with Zelenka, there was nothing she could usefully contribute to that particular problem, so she might as well return to the conference room where she might at least be able to help out in a co-ordinating manner if nothing else.
"If you activate the field, they'll die!" she heard Simpson say as she approached the conference room; it sounded like her role as negotiator was indeed going to be required here after all.
"Hey, we can always open it again!" Kavanagh's voice countered. "If they fix the problem-"
"But they may not have time!" Simpson countered.
"If they don't we could destroy this facility!" Kavanagh retorted, just as Elizabeth entered the room in time to see the two scientists standing on either side of the table glaring at each other.
"Well, I do-!" Simpson began.
"You're supposed to be working on solutions!" Elizabeth yelled, simultaneously cutting the argument short and making certain that the rest of the room knew that she was back.
For a moment there was silence in the conference room, Kavanagh looking frustrated while Simpson simply lowered her eyes, evidently at least slightly embarrassed about her loss of temper, before Kavanagh broke the silence.
"We think the gateship must be damaged for this to have happened in the first place," he said, looking at Simpson in what Elizabeth felt was a rather pointed manner as he continued. "Ancient systems are too advanced for this to have been pilot error."
"So?" Elizabeth asked, deciding to ignore the glare that had just passed between the two scientists. As far as she was concerned, if they had differing opinions on what had caused the accident, that was their problem; all that mattered to her was if they could figure out a solution.
"So," Kavanagh continued, "depending on the extent of the damage, we can't rule out a catastrophic power feedback in the drive manifold-!"
"Without the technobabble, please," Elizabeth countered, her hands behind her back as she looked pointedly at Kavanagh.
Fortunately for Kavanagh- if he'd continued talking for much longer Elizabeth had a feeling she would have tempted to hit him- it was Simpson who decided to continue the explanation. "Doctor Kavanagh was pointing out that there is a very slim chance that with the cockpit controls interrupted and the pod damaged, the main drive could overload-"
"She means to say explode," Kavanagh interjected, glaring briefly at Simpson before he turned back to look at Elizabeth. "Especially if McKay starts nosing around inside the control conduits to retract the drive pod manually, and he will; I know I would!"
"Zelenka is working on simulations," Elizabeth countered, hoping that the knowledge that they were already trying to prevent that from happening would make Kavanagh calm down. "I just came from there-"
"If there is a catastrophic overload," Kavanagh countered, clearly dissatisfied with her attempts at assurance, "the full force of the explosion will break up the gateship, follow the burning fragments through the Stargate like a bomb."
After staring silently at Kavanagh for a moment to better determine his belief in what he was saying, Elizabeth nodded in understanding; even if she didn't totally follow the technical details, she could appreciate that Kavanagh genuinely believed what he was saying.
"You think the risk of this happening is minimal?" she asked Simpson, turning to look at the younger woman.
"In my opinion?" Simpson replied, as she stood up slightly to glare at Kavanagh as he sat before her. "Yes."
"You all agree?" Elizabeth addressed the other scientists, not surprised when they all nodded in agreement; Kavanagh's abilities were good, but she recalled from his file that he had a tendency to always assume the worst, particularly in situations where he himself might have been in danger. "Then we take the chance."
"I thought it was important to point out the risk-" Kavanagh elaborated, as he stood up and crossed his arms.
"Fine," Elizabeth interrupted, unwilling to hear his attempts at justification. "You did. Now please, worry a little bit more about their lives and less about your own ass."
Ignoring his disdaining look in her direction, Elizabeth turned to look back at the rest of the scientists after a brief glance at her watch.
"Twenty-three minutes," she said simply as she walked out, leaving the scientists to turn their attention back to the papers laid out before them.
