I still own nothing associated with Stargate…MGM does as far as I know.
Thanks to everyone who has read this up to now.
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"What do you want me to say?!?!?!" yelled Rodney over the alert sirens, operational conversation and damage and casualty reports. "There's nothing I can do! The self-destruct is counting down and the virus has us completely locked out of the system."
Colonel Ellis turned away from his XO and glared at Rodney. "Why can't we just do what you did with the Daedalus a few years ago?"
"Because we're completely locked out of the system!" replied Rodney with no attempt at all to hide or otherwise lessen the disdain he felt towards the Apollo commander. It had been that way since day one with Ellis. "Weren't you listening?" Before Ellis could respond Rodney held his hand up to explain, again, what the trouble was. "Look, the last time the Wraith wanted control of the Daedalus so they could get information about Earth, now they just want us dead. They've gotten smarter and they've made this virus affect each and every system from the start, including command functions and whole bunch of other things that you don't need to worry about right now. It's gone so far so fast that we can't even turn the lights on or off." He winced as the siren continued to blare. "Or turn that off."
Sheppard stepped in between Rodney and Ellis, facing his friend and giving the Canadian something to focus on besides Ellis and the hate he felt for the man. "There has to be something, Rodney." He motioned around the bridge with his hand and said, "Something."
Rodney looked off to his left for a second and his eyes connected with Jennifer's. He tried to tell her with his eyes how sorry he was he wasn't going to be able to save them, and just how much he loved her. Jennifer gave him a brave smile and he turned to look back at John. "I…no, nothing." Rodney took a deep breath and let it out as he went on. "The shutdown won't work because we can't access the main computer, not even the core, to initiate a simultaneous shutdown of all systems. A manual shutdown of each system won't work because they have redundancies that will keep them going before we can purge the virus and move onto the next system. Can't evacuate because we can't maneuver close enough to a planet, not that that would do us any good anyway because, that's right, we're still locked out of the system and can't use the transporter. We can't even open the 302 bay doors or eject the escape pods." He shook his head and added, "There's nothing I can do without a way into the system."
"What about uploading an anti-virus program?" asked Ronon. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look at the big man standing by the Jennifer at the back of the bridge. "What?" he demanded when he noticed everyone looking at him.
"Well I see someone read the 'Computers for Dummies' that I gave everyone for Christmas last year," said Rodney as he leaned down to look at the console in front of him. "We've tried but the virus has a defense mechanism, like a firewall, that protects it."
Ellis moved up to stand beside Sheppard, folded his arms across his chest and fixed Rodney with a pointed look. "You're supposed to be the genius here, Dr. McKay. What do you suggest we do?"
Rodney sighed and looked up to the ceiling in exasperation. After a moment he looked to Ellis and said in as calm a voice as he had, "I don't know…pray, maybe, if you believe in that sort of thing."
Heads snapped towards Rodney, and for once he truly didn't appreciate the attention. This was different. The man they usually depended on to save their asses had just pretty much signed their death warrants.
It sucked.
John opened his mouth to press him, but Rodney just shook his head and glanced at the monitor. "Four minutes," he announced, and he looked into John's eyes. "I'm…I'm sorry."
He turned to look at Ronon. The big Satedan simply nodded at him, and knowing that he would not be able to come up with the right words, Rodney returned the gesture. He glanced around the bridge at the mostly unfamiliar faces and felt some relief that Teyla hadn't come with them. At least she would live.
Before Rodney knew it he was walking towards Jennifer, and when he reached her he put his arms around her shoulders and pulled her into a warm hug. "I'm sorry," he apologized, his whisper all but flowing right into her ear. "I'm sorry for making you come with me…"
Because Teyla hadn't been going, Rodney begged Jennifer to go with him so that he wouldn't be the third wheel in John and Ronon's testosterone extravaganza. After some nagging and against her better judgment, she relented and agreed to go on the trip.
"I'm glad you did," she said, her arms wrapping around his waist. She cuddled into him for a moment and then leaned back to look into his eyes. "There's something I need to tell you before…," she hesitated and then sighed. "Rodney, I'm pregnant. I'm…I'm so sorry I never told you but I only found out yester…"
"Pregnant?" asked Rodney as he tightened his arms around her in a vain attempt to protect her from what was about to happen. He thought about that for a second, and he realized that it probably wasn't a good thing to be squeezing Jennifer so hard with a baby in her belly. A baby in her belly, he thought. "You're pregnant! And you're a genius!!!" Rodney shouted at Jennifer as he jumped away from her and bolted over to the main engineering station on the starboard side of the bridge.
Heads snapped towards the physicist for the second time in as many minutes.
They watched as he typed furiously at the keyboard, and listened as he muttered along with his actions, talking out something they knew had to be complex and well above most of their heads. Realizing that, they held their stations and waited silently for him to work a miracle.
All except one of them.
"What are you doing?" demanded Ellis as he took a step towards Rodney who simply ignored the Colonel and kept typing.
"Dr. McKay," Ellis tried, but again he received no response. "McKay!"
"Let him work," came a deep growl that could only have been made by the Satedan.
Ellis stopped and looked to Ronon and opened his mouth to say something, but held his tongue when Ronon put his right hand on the handle of his gun and took a step towards Ellis.
Ignoring the master of the vessel altogether, Rodney glanced up to Sheppard and then looked back down to the console. "I may be able to get the av into the system by embedding it in another program, one that could occupy the virus' firewall and slip the av past it undetected." He stopped and watched the screen in front of him intently. "If the pregnant program gives birth to a healthy baby anti-virus and the av gets in, we should know right…about…now!"
Suddenly the alert sirens stopped, and the bridge lighting, which up to that point had been dimmed, returned to normal. The voice of the computer said in its monotone voice, "Self-destruct aborted," and a collective sigh went around the bridge.
Heads turned to the nearest monitors where the time left for the self-destruct had been displayed.
0:01.239
Everyone turned and looked to Rodney, who was hunched over the console with his head bowed slightly. He was breathing hard, and if those watching him hadn't known better they would have said that he'd just run a marathon.
Finally he straightened up, and without sparing any of them a glance he rushed back to Jennifer and put his hands on her shoulders. His eyes were wider than usual and his voice cracked as he said, "Really?"
Tears streamed down Jennifer's face as her hands moved up to cup his face. She nodded happily and said, "Yes."
Rodney's eyes opened even wider and after a moment a slow smile spread across his face. He looked deep into the brown eyes of the woman he loved, the woman who was carrying his child and…
THUMP!!!!!!
He hit the floor and the last thing he heard before the darkness swallowed him was Ronon saying in a knowing voice, "Now he faints."
