The trip had started out so good. A fun little game of dodgeem with a T. Rex. A nice view of a beautiful, lush looking world as they flew over it. Landing on the roof top and finding a shield still intact, possibly indicating a ZPM was still functioning. And now this. Velociraptors. Murphy was a bitch.
McKay had a life signs detector out and was scanning for lifesigns.
"Can I see that?" Rhonda asked.
"No, I do the scanning. You don't know how to use it."
"McKay, let her see it. It's not that hard to use."
"Fine, whatever." More grumbling as he handed it over.
Rhonda was studying the screen and then said. "These dots must be us. I wonder if there's a way to differentiate between us?"
"No, there's not. All it shows is the number of life forms." McKay told her as the screen abruptly changed. The dots took on different colors. 5 dark blue, 1 light blue, 1 yellow, 1 orange and 1 grey.
"Oh, now I'm jealous." Sheppard said. "I've been trying to get it to show me more for a year and you get it to do so it in less than a minute."
"Guess it just likes me better." She said as she held it out of McKay's reach. "These dark blue ones must be us Pack members, the light blue one must be Major Sheppard, indicating a connection between us maybe, the Ancient gene perhaps. Judging from the positions of the yellow and orange, that would be Faith and Jesse, reading your enhancements differently then ours, and McKay. Nothing special about him."
"Oh, haha. Give me that thing."
Rhonda let him take it back and it switched back to the original screen.
"Maybe it's a security feature. You did speculate that the hologram's response to you meant that Protectors could make decisions for Atlantis." Sheppard said to Xander.
"I wonder if that means it would show more for me. I wasn't the only Protector in the control room yesterday. Kyle and Rhonda were there too, but the hologram appeared before me. It must have worked out that I'm the Alpha of the Pack. Can I see it?"
McKay reluctantly handed it over to him. The screen changed back to the multicolored one and then expanded out to encompass all of what looked like the whole facility. "Can it direct us anywhere? Like to the room where the ZPM's or Potentia are stored." A blinking light appeared on the screen. "I guess it can. Neat." As McKay succeeded in grabbing it back, only to have it change back to the original screen again. The strangled sound that came out of his mouth was amusing for everyone, except him.
The transport tube wasn't functioning so they made their way through the corridors and down the steps until they reached the room indicated. Once again, it only seemed willing to respond to Xander. Sheppard's theory regarding a security feature and Xander's theory of Protectors having some authority with Ancient systems seeming to be bearing out. They found that there were ZPM's in the room. Four full ones stored in a locked case. Unfortunately, this time not even Xander could get it to open up.
"Must be keyed to the people who worked in this facility." He said.
"Move aside." McKay said. "Now it's my turn." As he pried open a panel by the case and hooked his tablet into it. He happily went to work, to prove his brilliance. It didn't take long and he had it open. He quickly put each of the ZPM's into a bag and the group moved to head back to the jumper.
"Well that went well." McKay said as they stepped out into the corridor. The one filled with velociraptors. Yup. Murphy was a bitch.
"McKay have we not established that challenging Murphy is a bad thing." Sheppard asked, annoyed.
"This is in no way, my fault!"
Xander pulled his sword as the rest of the Pack pulled their weapons. "Jesse guard McKay. Neither of you are cleared to know the specifics of any of our enhancements, so don't bother asking. Especially if you see Jesse do something you think is unexplainable."
"What are you going do?" McKay asked.
"They're a pack, same as us. Our strategies are going to be the same. Take out the Alpha." As he and the largest one leaped towards each other. The pack members moving to attack each other as well. Sheppard shoved McKay down the corridor, firing with his P90 as they went. Jesse brought up his hand and fired a fireball toward one that got a little too close, to McKay's shock. When one jumped for him, Jesse murmured something under his breath and a shield appeared around McKay. Jesse continued protecting him as the others fought. Xander and Kyle chopping heads with their sword and ax, respectively. Rhonda's metal tonfa piercing though eyeballs and into brains. And Tor going claw to claw, with Faith slicing and stabbing with her seax blades. The velociraptors were dying, but the Pack was taking injuries too. If it wasn't for their heavy armor, they'd all be dead. These things were damn tough.
They made it to the door to the steps and through, the door sliding closed behind them and breathing a sigh of relief. They hurried back up to the roof top and its shield and were nearly there when another velociraptor appeared and jumped toward Sheppard, who's P90 abruptly clicked empty. It landed heavily on him and he hit his head as it pushed him to the ground, knocked out. Xander stabbed it with his sword from behind and ordered Tor to pick him up and carry him as they raced the last few yards to the jumper.
Once inside, Xander sat down at the pilot seat. He hadn't had a flying lesson yet, but neither had Kyle and he'd managed. Xander put his hands on the controls the way he'd seen Sheppard do and remembering that it responded to thoughts, ordered it to take off. The jumper rose smoothly into the air. As they were heading back towards the Stargate, Xander realized they'd probably not be coming back, at least for a good long while, so he silently asked the ship about scanning for Hellmouths and demons, showing the specifications of them and asking for a planetary search. By the time they reached the Stargate, the jumper had an answer for him. Nothing found. 'Thank the gods.' Xander thought.
