Slowly getting everything drafted up! Thank you for your continued interest in the story :D

Chapter 29

It didn't take long for Rodney to regret his decision to get back inside a bio-suit and go searching for Teyla. In fact, he hadn't even made it far from his makeshift bed before he regretted it more than anything else in his life.

What the hell did he even think he was going to accomplish? Injured, pained, and if truth be told, not exactly brave, Rodney struggled to find the answer as he watched the rapidly receding view of the bed he'd been in moments before.

Perhaps the painkiller Carson had administered imbued his mind with the thoughts of heroism. Yes, that was it. Rodney believed this as all notions of valour disappeared as quickly as the drug did from his system. Carson had a lot to answer for.

Rodney knew he was far more courageous that he ever had been. Life in the Pegasus galaxy has a tendency to make or break a person. It had certainly tried to break Rodney on several occasions yet somehow he made it through. He was a different Rodney McKay to the one who first stepped through the Stargate to Atlantis. Despite this, he still couldn't deal with pain.

And he was in agony now.

Orna did her best to carry him gently, but a bio-suit wasn't exactly made to be caring. The metal of the suit was cold. Angular sections of it jabbed him occasionally, and the swaying as Orna ran made him feel nauseous. By the time they reached the Warrior complex, Rodney was sure he wouldn't manage to get inside one of the suits.

Orna slowed and carried him inside to one of the unused suits and carefully lowered him to the floor. He grunted as his feet touched the floor, the light impact jarring his fractured arm. He stood trembling before one of the bio-suits and stared at it with both misery and admiration. It was a beautiful machine, powerful, striking in its form and engineering. But it was also quite the task to get inside one with any grace or comfort. With a dislocated shoulder, a broken arm with bits of bone hanging out and open wounds all over him, it might well be impossible. Rodney had solved impossible often enough to momentarily detach himself from his pain and look at the problem analytically. He wouldn't be able to get inside with his arm swinging about freely and causing endless waves of fresh hell, so the first thing he had to do was stabilise it.

"What are you looking for Fer McKay?"

"I need to immobilise my arm and cover my wounds."

Orna stepped away and pressed the seamless wall beside the charging suit. A slit appeared in the wall and a deep drawer pushed out. It was filled with tools and spare small parts for the suits. At the back was white box which Orna grabbed and closed the drawer. She opened the box and extracted what looked to be a large bandage.

"May I?" she asked holding the bandage out.

"Wait," he raised his other arm and stepped back. "Wait, wait. Give me a second."

He took several deep breaths then gingerly tried to lift his broken arm into place. He huffed and puffed and tears welled in his eyes until he finally had his arm raised with his hand over his sternum. He already felt light headed and close to vomiting. But the arm still had to be tied up so Rodney nodded and steeled himself for the impending agony. Orna wound the bandage around him and Rodney closed his eyes tightly while struggling to contain a cry forcing its way through his throat. The only thing keeping him from screaming and just collapsing into a heap of misery was the thought of Teyla injured and alone in the godforsaken forest.

"All done," Orna said after what seemed like long hours of agony.

Considering she was in a bio-suit, Orna had did a great job. Rodney's chest was now covered in wraps of white bandage, marred only by spreading blotches of red seeping through from his compound fracture and chest wounds. On seeing this, Rodney felt the room spin and his stomach heave. He swayed as his knees threatened to give beneath him. Seeing this, Orna placed her mechanical hand on his shoulder and steadied him until the dizziness passed.

He quickly looked away from the bloodstains to stare again at the bio-suit that stood in its charging port. Orna was now in the process of disengaging it from the port and at the press of a button, the suit walked a few paces forward and its rear compartment opened up to reveal the pilot area. She pressed some buttons on the back then stood aside.

"I've disabled the suit conforming action for now, until you are in and comfortable. I'll turn it back on once you are safely inside," Orna said. "Now, just step up, I'll do the rest."

He grabbed hold of the slender rail to the side of the opening with his good hand, and set his foot on the small step above and behind the suit's knee. He felt Orna's mechanical hands encircle his waist and she effortlessly raised him up and into the cockpit. It wasn't without pain, but so much easier than had Rodney had to do it all by himself.

He gasped and cursed as his wounds collided with the interior of the cockpit, his usual claustrophobic reactions absent in his pain-clouded mind. Once he settled into a somewhat comfortable position, Orna enabled the suits conforming action. Rodney felt it balloon around him, pushing gently to mould to his body and hold him firm within the cockpit. The action itself alleviated some of his pain as it cushioned him so securely. Once again locked inside the small place, Rodney stared out of the tiny window before him and images of his battle with the Groten flashed through his mind. He closed his eyes and breathed raggedly, trying to block the memory before he abandoned his plan.

"I'm going to close the suit now and start the synaptic interface."

The buzzing in his head started almost immediately and within moments the HUD appeared before him. Rodney thought of a few commands and the suit obeyed them instantaneously. Walk forward. Raise arm. Raise leg. Jump. Pain erupted in his shoulder and arm and he realised jumping was a bad idea.

"I'm ready," he said as Orna came to stand before him.

The two left the village unseen and disappeared into the trees, Rodney following Orna as she knew the way to the Groten ship. The deeper they went the darker it got as the tree canopy thickened above them. The HUD threw up flashes of red when they neared a denizen of the forest. Whether they signified giant insect or galloping knelkin didn't matter, they avoided all areas where the red lights flashed.

It was now so dark that Rodney had to rely on the HUD completely. The tiny suit window was just a black rectangle now they were in the heart of the forest. Noises could be heard all around, sharp barks, screeched howls, the snapping of wood and rustling of foliage. It left so much for his imagination to interpret, and so much unease to build in Rodney's mind that his eyes darted over the HUD image in search of flashing red warning lights. He felt hot, breathless, and completely panic-stricken. It took him a moment to notice that Orna had stopped moving, almost colliding with her.

"We're near the ship, but there is something up ahead, hiding," Orna's voice whispered through the synaptic com.

"Hiding? Then... then it's no animal. Groten, maybe?"

"I don't think so, too small."

Rodney saw the anomaly on his own sensors; a huddled form some meters ahead of them. Orna moved cautiously forward and Rodney followed, wishing there was light to see by. No sooner had he thought it than bright light burst from his suit to illuminate ahead. The small window erupted with light and dazzled his eyes as Orna cursed his poor bio-suit control. His eyes blinked rapidly as he tried to see what or who was hiding from them. Then he saw her. She rose to her feet, shielding her eyes from the bright lights of his suit. Battered and bruised, filthy and soaked but very much alive, it was Teyla Emagan.

"Turn down those lights!" Orna's voice shouted through the com.

Lights dimmed, Rodney's shocked surprise made the bio-suit surge forward past Orna until he came to a halt just a few feet before his teammate.

"Teyla! We thought you were injured or dead!"

Teyla cocked her head to the side with a slight and puzzled smile. "Rodney? Is that you?"

"Yes, yes it's me! And..." he glanced to the suited warrior who came to a stop beside him, "and Orna! We came to rescue you! Or, you know, retrieve your, uh... body."

"While I appreciate the gesture, as you can see, I am in no need of rescuing, and I'm very much alive."

"But, how, Fen Emagan?" Orna asked. "I saw you take a hit, and saw the shock in your eyes to know enough of what had happened."

"Eldus saved me," Teyla said enigmatically.

"Who is Eldus?" Rodney frowned, suddenly feeling light-headed.

Teyla told them of Eldus and her adventure on the Groten ship. Of stagnant tanks filled with sickly Goh. Of the Groten language and fearsome quarrels. She continued her tale and Rodney listened but didn't take in the information. He had problems concentrating and felt strangely disengaged from reality, his mind wandering to that of his increasing pain levels. Teyla's voice gradually faded, or maybe it was just that he couldn't focus on it anymore. He tried to ask her to speak up, managing a mere mumble that he barely heard himself. His arm ached, his shoulder throbbed and the pain was the only thing he could focus on as everything around him dimmed.

He heard his name being called as the HUD flickered and his eyelids drooped. There was a sudden creaking sound from the hip area of his suit and a high-pitched beeping started near his right ear. Rodney's vision blurred just as Orna rush past him. He was aware of something impacting his suit then another beep heralded a sudden stiffening of the suit which corrected itself before it toppled over with Rodney inside. A whirring noise sounded to his left and he felt a sharp jab in his neck, just above the conforming mechanism of the suit.

Within seconds Rodney was awake and alert again. The suit alarms had stopped and the HUD was once again floating just before his face.

"Rodney?"

"I'm fine, I'm..." he looked to Orna, "What just happened?"

"The bio-suits communicate with each other when in teams. Your suit told me you were passing out."

"But, what did it inject me with?!"

"There is an emergency drug delivery system in every bio-suit in case a warrior falls while scouting alone. It's a way to get your body up and running again until you can reach the village and medical help."

"I can't feel a thing!" he exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell me about this before?! I've been in agony since you pulled me out of my sick bed!"

"It doesn't last long Fer McKay, half an hour is the longest I've known the drugs to work and the suit only has enough for one dose. I wasn't sure how long we would be searching for Fen Emagan, so decided to only use it when you could no longer function. I thought it would be what you'd want, given how driven you were to search for her."

"Yes, yes of course. And how far are we from the village?"

"Approximately twenty minutes, without incident."

"Then we must leave, now," Teyla said. "I only hope we can get to the village and return with backup in time."

"Time? Time for what?" Rodney asked, realising he'd missed more of Teyla's tale than he'd thought.

"They are removing the tanks of Goh from their ship to reduce weight in order to achieve space flight."

"Great! We can come back and pick up the Goh once they are gone!"

"No, Rodney. The Groten are smashing the tanks so that none of Goh survive. Two Primus and a Healer are controlling Groten and trying to stop the destruction, but I fear they will not prevail alone."

"How big are the tanks?" he asked.

"They are huge; it takes two Groten to carry them out of the ship."

"And we have two bio-suits that were built to battle the wildlife here. We could carry two tanks back to the village!" he finished elatedly; fully lost in, and appreciative of, the drug infused high the suit had delivered.

"I do not believe you could carry more than one tank between you. I fear even one tank would be difficult for you both to move."

Rodney fell silent as he mulled over the problem, completely and blissfully unaware of his own weakening state. "If we could somehow get as many Goh in one tank as possible, we could take one back to the village with us. Then the return journey will have at least saved some? Two birds, one stone!"

"Perhaps, but I do not wish to place you in any more danger. We will return to the village and seek help."

"This Eldus, I heard enough to remember you said it was the last of its line?"

"Indeed. And with its death, the end of the Goh shared consciousness."

"Then we go on. It's what John would want."

"John wouldn't want you to risk your life for theirs!" Teyla replied hastily.

Rodney looked to Orna. "Am I right in remembering that the suits have an automatic return function built into their code?"

"They do. On incapacitation or death of the pilot, the suit returns to the warrior complex if still functioning."

"Okay, so we go get a tank, make our way back to the village with it. If I go down, dump the tank somewhere safe and press the return button. We're doing this. One tank, Teyla, we can at least save one tank before I'm out of play."

"And you will not try to come on the main rescue mission?"

"You and I both know that as soon as this drug leaves my system the only place I'll be going is to bed. For a month... maybe longer. No, I've done what I set out to do; I will happily leave the rest to you and the others."

Teyla stared at him a few moments before she briskly nodded and beckoned that they follow. As Orna passed him, Rodney steeled himself for the task ahead while hoping they wouldn't need to fight any Groten once they got there. He knew without a doubt that he didn't have the strength for another battle, even with his newfound vigour.

TBC... Cookies... feed meh!