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
As he lay on the chair, simultaneously taking the opportunity to relax while making sure his mind didn't relax so much that he triggered the chair by accident, he took care to pay close attention to the situation currently being discussed between the puddle jumper and Beckett's medical team; after spending so long essentially 'winging it' when it came to medical matters, it was almost refreshing to have access to a person with more professional training.
Lieutenant Ford and Teyla Emmagan- nice woman, really; he had a feeling that they would have gotten along well if they ever had the chance to talk face-to-face- had just finished going over everything that was currently available in the 'gateship's' (Seriously, how unoriginal could you get; at least when he'd come up with 'puddle jumper' he'd actually put a bit more thought into the naming process) medical inventory when another, far more voice suddenly cut in over the radio link.
"Gateship One, this is Weir," Elizabeth's voice said, bringing a brief smile to his lips; even in the middle of a crisis like this, she still managed to sound in control. "Doctor Zelenka's come up with something."
"He's positively identified the control systems on the port side of the gateship that retract the drive pods," Doctor Grodin added (He thought he heard McKay mutter something on the other end, but evidently it wasn't that important). "I'm relaying the schematics to your datapad."
"Thank you," McKay replied briefly at the other end. "Now we're getting somewhere."
"What?" Lieutenant Ford's voice said, slightly less audible than McKay's; he'd be prepared to bet at least one of their naquadah generators- those things were excellent; anything that would leave the ZPM with more power when they'd really need it couldn't fail to be a good thing- that neither man knew they could still be heard.
"Zelenka's identified the control pathways to the engine pod," McKay explained, the faint sound of activity as he spoke suggesting that he was lowering the control panel in question even as he spoke, "which means that's increasing my chances of fixing this from one in a million to one in a thousand, but, uh…it's something. Elizabeth?"
"Yes?" Elizabeth's voice replied, even as the man in the chair crossed his fingers; maybe they'd manage to get the thing through now and he wouldn't need to resort to his slightly riskier plan (Not that it would do him much good in terms of his standing with the expedition, of course; even if he didn't do anything right now he still wouldn't be able to get around the fact that he'd knocked one of their number out, whatever his motives for doing so were).
"I'll only have seven to nine seconds to warn you if I accidentally trigger a catastrophic overload," McKay replied, instantly prompting the listener to re-evaluate his opinion of the plan- it was, if anything, less safe than his; at least his wouldn't cause anything to actually explode if it went wrong-, "so if I tell you to raise the shields… don't hesitate."
"We're aware of the risk, Rodney," Elizabeth replied, her voice calm despite the potential danger that could result from what she'd just heard. "Do your best."
For a moment, there was silence on both ends, the Atlantis staff presumably waiting for news of the situation in the gateship while the gateship team prepared to do the work in question, until Lieutenant Ford's voice broke the silence once again.
"We're starting with iodine," he said briefly, followed by a brief pause before he spoke again. "Scratch iodine."
"What else have you got there?" Beckett's voice asked.
There a brief moment of muffled conversation on the gateship end of the line- it sounded like McKay was asking for something; most likely food, given what he'd gathered about that man's habits over the last couple of weeks-, and then Ford spoke again.
"We're going to try alcohol now," the young lieutenant said.
"Place a few drops on the soft tissue to see how it reacts," Beckett said.
After another few brief moments of muffled conversation at the other end, Ford spoke again. "No reaction to alcohol."
"Right," Beckett said on the other end, in a brisk voice that made it clear he had decided to simply acknowledge that failure and move on to another possibility. "What next?"
After some muffled comments from over the radio, Ford's voice was heard once again as he muttered something about water that couldn't quite be heard, only to be followed by his voice suddenly yelling "Sir! Sir, are you all right? Sir? Colonel?"
As Sumner's voice suddenly roared in pain over the communication link, all he could think of was that he hoped the man's current pain wasn't as bad as it sounded at present, and that Sumner would be spared from it sooner rather than later.
Come on… he growled, gritting his teeth as he glanced at the watch of the man lying before him; they were down to just over ten minutes before the wormhole shut down on them and that damn bug still wasn't off. If they took much longer than this to sort the problem out, he was going to just hang the risk and
"Sir, are you all right?" Ford's voice continued to say over the radio, drawing his attention back to the matter at hand. "Sir? Colonel? Colonel? What's happening?"
The sudden sound of someone- judging by the brief yell he heard it definitely wasn't an inanimate object- being thrown at something else was nearly enough to make him forget himself and get the ship moving, but he stopped himself in time; he still had no idea what would happen to the Iratus bug if it went through the wormhole, and they still had a decent amount of time before the Stargate reached the moment when it would have to shut down.
"What's happening?" Elizabeth's voice said, the concern in her voice prompting a brief spike of jealousy before he got it under control; the last thing he wanted was to lose focus while he was in the chair.
"It reacted to either the salt or the water," Ford replied promptly.
"Or the combination of both," Beckett said, clearly trying to think of what to do even as he spoke. "Did it loosen its hold on Colonel Sumner?"
"Negative," Ford replied apologetically.
"If anything, it dug in more," Teyla put in, her voice clearly reflecting her frustration at the current crisis.
"Most likely a primitive defensive reflex to salt water," Beckett speculated, only to be greeted with muffled responses as further conversation took place between the small group trapped in the gateship.
For a moment, the only sounds audible through the radio link were faint sounds of conversation, clearly taking place a short distance away from the radio itself, until Elizabeth's voice broke through the silence.
"Ford, what can you tell me?" she asked.
"The gateship has shifted slightly," Ford replied, his tone grim as he spoke. "The rear compartment has now breached the event horizon. Dr. McKay…"
He paused, most likely looking at the scientist in question for confirmation of what he was about to say, before he continued speaking. "Dr. McKay… is still hopeful he can retract the drive pod in time."
"Understood," Elizabeth's voice said. "We haven't come up with anything yet, but there's still time."
"Yes, Ma'am," Ford replied briefly; evidently the classic military man, he seemed to prefer confirming others' opinions when he couldn't come up with anything to say about the situation himself.
"How is Colonel Sumner?" Elizabeth asked, evidently wanting to focus more on something where she felt at least slightly more in control than on the technical details.
"I'm still here," Sumner grunted, evidently still in pain from the Iratus bug as it sucked away at his life force.
"Hang in there, Colonel," Elizabeth said simply. "We're working on the problem."
"I gathered as much," Sumner replied grimly, even as he clearly didn't believe they'd manage to accomplish anything. "I should have known that thing wouldn't have let me go if he thought I could live…"
"What thing?" Elizabeth asked.
"The wraith," Sumner replied grimly. "One of them found me shortly after the bug first attached itself, but… damn thing just looked at me and left… probably because he knew I was as good as dead anyway…"
"You are not going to die on us now, Colonel," Elizabeth stated decisively (Even as illogical as he knew it was, a part of him couldn't help a faint twinge of jealousy; even with all the hostility between Elizabeth and Sumner, she was still so determined for him not to die).
"We should send him through the event horizon," Ford put in. "If Dr. McKay figures it out in time, we can fix the Colonel up on the other side, and if he doesn't, we're all dead anyway."
"So, no pressure?" McKay countered, clearly not in favour of the added pressure being placed on him at a time like this.
"Colonel Sumner would effectively be in suspended animation for the entire time," Grodin's voice added.
"We can't risk that," Beckett interjected.
"Why not?" Ford asked.
"If the creature reacted that violently to a few drops of water, who knows how it would react to Stargate travel?" Beckett pointed out.
For a moment, the listener was almost tempted to thank Beckett profusely for voicing the reason he'd not done anything yet himself. He was fairly confident that he could get the 'gateship' through the Stargate so long as it wasn't too far into the event horizon, but as long as that Iratus bug was attached to the colonel, he had no desire to find out the hard way what effects Stargate travel would have on that thing; he'd seen someone try to escape through a Stargate while a Wraith was feeding on him once, and the results at the other side had been less than pleasant.
"You're telling me Colonel Sumner can't come through the gate while that thing is on him?" Elizabeth's voice said over the radio, cutting off his train of thought.
"Then we must do something now!" Teyla responded, her voice continuing to reflect
"Hit me with the defibrillator," Sumner said grimly.
For a moment there was silence as everyone took in the fact that the expedition's military commander had essentially just asked to be euthanised- the man in the chair in particular hadn't thought of Sumner as the type to ake the easy option out unless there was no other choice, and the bug definitely had a long way to go before it was finished with him-, but then Doctor Beckett's voice broke the silence.
"You may be on to something, Colonel," he said, actually sounding enthusiastic for the first time since this situation had begun.
"You said that might kill him!" Ford protested.
"That's the idea," Sumner responded grimly.
"I don't understand," Teyla's voice interjected, sounding ever more confused at her new allies' reactions to the idea of someone essentially killing themselves.
"Teyla," Beckett began, clearly taking it upon himself to provide the explanation, "you said this creature is like a Wraith?"
"Yes?" Teyla replied, her voice still reflecting her confusion at the apparent rapid change of topics.
"Then how do you think it would respond if, God forbid, Colonel Sumner were to die right now, then?"
After a brief silence as she contemplated what she had just heard, Teyla spoke again.
"It would stop feeding," she said, clearly realising what the doctor was saying even if she didn't like it.
"Exactly, just as a Wraith would," Beckett clarified, evident excitement at the possibility in his voice.
"How is that an idea?" Elizabeth asked (Not that he could blame her for not seeing it, of course; it wasn't in her mentality to try and stop death by causing it).
"We're suggesting that we fool the creature into thinking its prey is dead by stopping the Colonel's heart," Beckett explained. "If I'm right, it should let him go."
"So when the thing lets go, we give him another jolt?" Ford said.
"You could give that a try," Beckett confirmed. "If it doesn't work, send him through the event horizon; he'll keep there as good as a deep freeze."
"Colonel Sumner," Elizabeth cut in, clearly anxious about the implications of what they were about to do, "are you sure you want to do this?"
"I want this thing off," Sumner replied grimly.
For a moment Beckett's voice faded- presumably addressing somebody else at his end of the radio- before he spoke again. "Lieutenant Ford, do you know how to do this?"
"Yes, Sir," the lieutenant said briefly, before he terminated the radio connection. For a few moments, there was nothing but silence over the radio, the gateship's end of the line no longer transmitting as those on the Atlantis side waited anxiously for news on the fate of the expedition's military commander, until, after a couple of minutes had passed, Lieutenant Ford's voice finally spoke again.
"This is Lieutenant Ford," the young marine's voice said, remaining calm despite the dire news that he was now relaying to the rest of the expedition. "The creature's successfully been removed from Colonel Sumner, but we were unable to revive him. Both he and Teyla are now on the other side of the event horizon."
As soon as his brain had finished processing the sentence, he knew that this was his moment to act.
With the bug eliminated and Sumner as safe as he was going to get, now was as good a time as any to carry out his plan. If he recalled his medical knowledge correctly, right now, with the medical team hopefully still waiting in the gateship bay, given how long it must have been between them 'killing' Sumner and Ford's subsequent message- allowing for time to make any final preparations such as cutting his shirt open to apply the defibrillator-, there'd only be something like a minute for them to get Sumner breathing again if they wanted to avoid him suffering from brain damage due to prolonged oxygen deprivation.
It was now or never; even if this worked, Sumner was going to be cutting it really close on the other side.
He just had to hope that his old attempts to practice this 'trick' had paid off as well as he'd felt they had at the time.
Reaching out with his mind to 'feel' the puddle jumper on the other side, he smiled slightly as he sensed the drones on either side; just as he'd hoped, the ship wasn't far enough into the event horizon for his access to them to be totally cut off.
Here goes nothing… he mused.
"Thank you, Lieutenant," Doctor Weir's voice said over the radio (Doctor McKay just wished she had something else to offer them other than these little pleasantries; they helped to keep spirits up, but there were only so many times polite encouragement could help you when you were in this kind of mood)). "Rodney, you have seven-"
Before he could even hear the end of the sentence, Rodney McKay was shocked to feel the gateship actually move backwards a few feet, exposing what looked like Teyla and Sumner's legs on the other end of the event horizon currently visible through the open door without actually returning them to real time.
"What the…?" Ford asked, looking in confusion over at the astrophysicist. "Did you do something?"
"Oh yeah, my artificially created Ancient gene suddenly got boosted to allow me to control this thing without the need for the controls!" Rodney yelled in frustration at the lieutenant. "Seriously, nobody's Ancient gene is that advanced; not even the natural genes are good enough to pull off something like that! Besides, don't you think that-"
Before Rodney could say anything more, he heard the faint sound of the ship's exterior engines shifting position outside the ship- he didn't hear the clunk that signified that they'd fully retracted, but they definitely weren't in the same position they'd been in when they'd first gotten stuck in the 'gate originally; what was that all about?-, only for the event horizon before them to sudden move rapidly towards them…
Even as she stood in the control room anxiously looking at the wormhole before her, Elizabeth still doubted she'd ever be able to fully understand what was taking place before her. One minute, and her staff were in the conference room, anxiously going over every possible solution for the gateship's current crisis that they could think of- the most outlandish suggestion so far was trying to find an Ancient teleportation device to send another gateship along; even if the Ancients had mastered that kind of technology how would they be able to learn how to use it in under five minutes?-, the next minute she was hearing Grodin's shocked voice yelling at her from the control room. Hurrying through to the source of the calls, she and her team were shocked to witness something that none of them had thought possible; right there, in front of their eyes, the gateship was coming through the Stargate.
"What the hell?" Elizabeth said, looking over at Grodin in confusion. "How's-?"
"I don't know; Doctor McKay gave no indication that he had come up with anything at that end!" Grodin said, looking back at her in evident frustration as the gateship continued to advance. "It's as though-"
"Wait a minute…" Kavanagh said, his eyes widening behind his glasses as he looked at the ship before them, its engines now protruding from the wormhole; Elizabeth was surprised to note that they were still extended, but were no longer at the full length she'd seen demonstrated in the docking bay on occasion. "Didn't Colonel Sumner say that these ships were equipped with drone weapons like the type that was found in Antarctica?"
"Yes; why?" Elizabeth asked, looking over inquiringly at Kavanagh.
"Well, look at the drive pods," Kavanagh said, indicating the engines on either side of the gateship as they prepared to retract. "Doesn't that glow they're letting off look like the one generated by the drones?"
Elizabeth blinked.
Now that she thought about it, the faint golden glow visible from around the gateship's engines did look rather like the glow that had been generated by the drone weapon she'd seen in action when Carson had accidentally activated it after sitting in the Antarctic control chair…
But how could that make sense? she asked herself, still looking in confusion at the ship before her ascended up towards the gateship bay (She didn't follow it, of course; she could contribute nothing by being up there and might even just get in the way while Carson attempted to revive Colonel Sumner). What could cause the gateship's drone weapons to turn on like that?
It would appear that they had just discovered another mystery about the city that they'd need to solve...
Elizabeth wasn't sure whether to enjoy these little puzzles or get frustrated about them by this point.
Later that night, as Teyla Emmagan lay in her bed, she couldn't help but find herself reflecting on the day's events now that the danger had passed and Colonel Sumner was out of danger. The insect that had attacked him was currently in Doctor Beckett's laboratory undergoing an in-depth examination under controlled conditions; given its apparent similarity to the Wraith, nobody was willing to take any chances that it might possess at least some degree of their regenerative abilities.
In general, although the situation had been resolved with (From what she gathered; she naturally had no way of knowing how much time had really passed between her entering the event horizon with Sumner and their subsequent return to Atlantis, even if she believed McKay when he only a few seconds had passed) at least five minutes to spare, it still left them with a great deal of unanswered questions about what had actually taken place at the resolution of the crisis.
According to what McKay and some of the other scientists had told them in the subsequent briefing after Colonel Sumner had been revived, someone had apparently broken into the room holding the control chair of Atlantis- apparently a chair where one person would be capable of controlling the city's entire defence in the event of an attack by other ships- and, having knocked out the person guarding the chair at the time- a Sergeant Bates, if she recalled correctly-, had proceeded to use the chair to take control of the gateship's drone weapons. With the drones providing the ship with motion in the absence of the control room, and thus allowing the gateship to move once again, the gateship had been moved back slightly to 'dislodge' it from where it had been previously trapped, and the positioning of the drive pods had subsequently been altered before giving it the necessary push forward to allow it through the Stargate, thus leaving the drones free to provide energy to push the ship through the wormhole despite the relative lack of forward momentum.
While the technical aspects of the discussion had eluded Teyla to a certain extent, she had nevertheless understood enough to determine that none of the Atlantis expedition had any idea of who had actually used the control chair in that manner; very few of the people from Earth possessed the ability to control the machinery left by the Ancestors well enough to accomplish that goal, but at the same time there was no other explanation for how the ship had come through the Stargate without any action on Doctor McKay's part save that somebody had done it deliberately from this end.
Of course, Teyla was fairly certain that all of them knew who had been behind their recent rescue- his actions after Jinto had released the shadow creature a mere few days ago were evidence enough for her that he was resolved to act in their benefit- but given Colonel Sumner's attitude towards the man in question, she, for one, was reluctant to say it and cause him further problems.
She understood why he remained in the shadows, of course- Colonel Sumner was a good man, but his belief in his 'chain of command' left him with a very narrow-minded viewpoint when it came to any independent figures inside 'his' city-, but when she considered everything that the… individual (She somehow could not think of him as a man after all that he had done over the years)… might have to teach them…
A slight sound, as though that of a foot touching the ground, broke off Teyla's train of thought.
Someone was in her room…
Sitting up sharply, she waved a hand at the device that apparently controlled the lighting in her room, only to find herself staring in shock as the light gleamed off the silver mask of the black-clad figure standing before her.
"Phantom…" she whispered, unable to stop the almost reverential tone that crept into her voice as she stared at the figure standing in front of her, a slight smile on his face as he looked at her.
After hearing of his legend for more than a decade- almost her entire adult life-, to actually be in the presence of the one man whom almost the entire galaxy owed a debt to for his actions in defending them against the Wraith…
Teyla would be lying if she didn't admit that the situation was almost overwhelming
What she didn't understand was what he was doing here.
AN: Any guesses? C'mon, you know you want to…
