Disclaimer: None of these
characters belong to me. No money made, just having a bit of fun with some
great characters.
Author’s Note: This is my
first Stargate: Atlantis fic ever, so please go easy on me. And of course,
wouldn’t you know I’d pick an AU continuation of “The Storm” . . . . I’ve only been with these characters for
about a month, now, so please forgive any inaccuracies. As for pairings . . . I
don’t know yet, let’s see how it unfolds . . . .
Storm Surge
By WriterJC
“Kolya!!” John yelled the
words into the radio, fear and fury raging through him equal in power to the
storm that was bearing down on the city. He had watched Sumner die; another
commander would not be lost on his watch. Especially not this commander, not
Dr. Weir.
The quiet across the radio
link stretched for impossibly long moments as lightning flashed, and the rain
started, beating down a punishing assault. Then a booming eruption of thunder
sounded, vibrating the very air around him. For one terrifying heartbeat, he’d
thought he’d caught the sound of Kolya’s weapon firing, tearing through the
flesh and bone of the woman that he had come to respect as the true leader of
Atlantis. But then, he heard something else.
“I want you, unarmed and in
front of me in five minutes.” It was Kolya’s voice, the cold tone leaving no
margin for error. “If you’re not here in the allotted time, I’ll kill her and
the deal is off.”
John closed his eyes,
nearly sagging against the railing in relief. Then, pulling himself together,
he depressed the button to speak. “I’ll be there.” Moving in from the cool
spray of the rain, he started back toward the inner corridor at a run. Kolya
was not to be trusted, and he had less than five minutes to come up with a
plan.
-- -- --
“Dr. McKay,” Kolya turned
back toward the two non-Genii. “You mentioned something about reactivating the
shield. Surely you’re up to the challenge.”
“I couldn’t possibly come
up with something in the time remaining. Don’t you realize what -”
“Rodney, focus,” she spoke
calmly, but firmly, looking pointedly at him. “That fourth grounding station
can’t help us, now. There has to be a way to work around it.”
Rodney looked as if he was
preparing for round two of arguments as to why there was nothing that could be
done when suddenly he paused. “That’s it!” And suddenly his expression cleared
as he began the rapid-fire speech which spoke of his excitement.
“I don’t know why I didn’t
think of it earlier,” he said, then continued thoughtfully, “Must have been the
pain and an impending hypoglycemic reaction – speaking of which I’m going to
need something soon if this is to continue . . . .”
The Genii soldier who had
delivered painful reminders earlier moved forward to grab at Rodney’s damaged
arm. But the scientist, seeing the intent, drew away, shooting a sharp glare
the man’s way. “Don’t you understand that isn’t helpful? Do you want to die
here?”
At a gesture from Kolya,
the man backed off.
Rodney turned on Kolya.
“You understand I need food? It is very difficult for me to work under these
conditions. I -”
“You’re running out of
time, Dr. McKay,” Kolya interrupted. “If I am satisfied with your performance,
we will discuss refreshments.”
Rodney was brought up
short, clearly not used to being denied food. “Fine,” he stated, then with a
small sniff he continued with his explanation. “We need to remove the fourth
grounding station from the circuit pathways of the rest of the station.”
“And how do we accomplish
that?” Kolya asked.
“I was getting there. The
city wasn’t built as a single structure, but is composed of several different
sections that were then pieced together, something like a gargantuan jigsaw
puzzle. The channeling rods that run through the corridors have break-away
sections that can be retracted. We’ll need to go to each section and manually
retract them.”
“What’ll that do to the
city?”
“No, not in the true sense
of the word. It’ll be electrically isolated, though. If my theory is correct,
the first bolt of lightning will overwhelm the fourth grounding station and
blow it apart, effectively separating it. We reconnect the channeling rods and
the original plan is back on track.”
“How many channeling rods?”
Kolya asked.
Rodney turned away and
moved toward one of the consoles and brought up a data display. After several
moments he looked back toward the group. “Five. All in this section.” He
gestured toward the portion of the city in question.
“Sounds like a helluva
plan.” A familiar voice sounded from a corridor leading up from near the gate
room. All eyes turned toward John Sheppard who stood, hands held high in
surrender, a look of amused insolence plastered across his features.
“You’re right on schedule,
Major,” Kolya said.
“Wouldn’t do to make a bad
first impression,” John shot back as he was urged in a less than gentle manner
up the stairs.
“Dr. McKay,” Kolya spoke,
not looking away from John, “You will direct Dr. Weir in the retraction of the
channeling rods. Major Sheppard and I have some business to attend to.”
Part 2
A significant look passed
between John and Elizabeth as he watched her walk from the command center with
Sora and two other soldiers at her back. He could almost hear the words that
she was quietly communicating to him. Don’t get yourself dead. Atlantis needs
you. He could easily have told her the same thing, though he felt marginally
better to have her being in Sora’s presence than that of Kolya. From the moment
he set eyes on the man, he’d pegged him as a heartless SOB with delusions of
ruling of the galaxy.
Once the two women were out
of view he rolled his gaze in McKay’s direction. The physicist was pale and
almost visibly shaking. No fear, he tried to communicate in a quick glance
before focusing on Kolya. Rodney seemed to understand, and pulled himself up
taller.
“I’m curious, Major
Sheppard. Why did you decide to surrender? It is a clear tactical
disadvantage.” Kolya’s tone was almost conversational.
“It’s good to be curious,”
John replied, having no intention of making this easy on the invader.
Kolya seemed to contemplate
that answer, and then casually, he pulled a gun from his jacket and pointed it
toward the center of John’s head. “I could kill you right now.”
John didn’t allow himself
even the luxury of a blink. Instead he raised his lips in the smile that he’d
perfected during some of his more covert assignments. “You could,” he agreed,
allowing the cold fury to show, if only in his eyes. “But I’m the only person
in this city who has the ancient gene necessary to run this place. I’m the only
one who can even activate a jumper, and I’m the only one that knows where the
C4 is. Oh, and, the tech doesn’t work if you’re dead.”
Kolya re-holstered his
weapon, emotionlessly. “You have items to bargain with.”
John shrugged,
noncommittal. He knew this game.
“Where is the C4?” The tone
was quiet, cold.
“Like I said, it’s good to
be curious.”
John caught a slight shift
in Kolya’s eyes just as he heard Rodney yell his name. He turned into a
brilliant burst of pain and light before the room tilted. His last view was of
the floor rushing up to meet him.
-- -- --
Dr. Carson Beckett watched
as Teyla moved into the passenger section of the puddle jumper and spoke
quietly with each of the Athosians on board. He did not understand how she
could be so calm under the circumstances. They were literally in the middle of
a hurricane the likes of which none of them had ever seen before, and she
seemed to be reacting as if this was something she dealt with on a regular
basis.
With an inward sigh he
turned away, and looked again through the reinforced view screen, consciously
attempting to relax tension-tightened muscles. It was no use. The downpour
seemed relentless, and worse, he was starting to have doubts about flooding.
The puddle jumper wasn’t exactly an ark.
“Something is wrong. We
need to go back, now!” Lieutenant Ford’s voice sounded more loudly than before
as he all but pounded a fist against the inactive console.
“Lad, have you not been
looking out of this window lately?”
“We’ve got to do
something,” Ford insisted. “We’re the only back-up he has and it’s been too
long since we heard anything at all from him! They probably hate him as much as
they hate Teyla!”
“I understand that,” he
said, striving to be patient in the face of the other man’s obvious anxiety.
“But getting ourselves killed won’t help them!” Everyone knew that Ford had
developed a sort of hero worship for John Sheppard, which made it even more difficult
for him to sit and wait.
They both turned as Teyla
appeared between them. Instead of her usual efforts to resolve the disagreement
between them she moved closer to the view screen. “Are not the winds
lessening?” she asked.
Suddenly with that thought,
something happened and the window turned completely black.
“I did that?” he asked half
to himself.
“What’d you do?” Ford asked
almost simultaneously, clear amazement in his gaze.
“I don’t know. I was just
thinking that windshield wipers would have been a nice addition,” he confessed.
“Perhaps you should think
of what remains of the storm in this area,” Teyla suggested, ever focused on
the situation at hand.
“Or a way to fly us safely
back to Atlantis a little sooner,” Ford put in, his intentions equally as
clear.
At both their surprised
reactions, he looked up and saw that the screen had changed again. This time an
animated display appeared showing a route from the current location to
Atlantis, including current wind speed and the location of the storm in
relation to both the jumper and the city.
“Wow,” he breathed, proud
of his own effort.
“Looks like you were
right,” Ford told Teyla. “The winds have died down to about 80 miles per hour.
That’s definitely better than it was before.”
“Still too dangerous,”
“And it appears that we
still have this section of the storm remaining,” Teyla pointed to the swirling
tail end of the big formation which had its beginning fringes bearing down on
Atlantis itself.
“But we have a route displayed
for us,” Ford pointed toward the flashing green lines. “Why can’t we just
follow it – like an autopilot? We don’t need to be able to see where we’re
going.”
“It won’t be an auto
pilot,”
“Well it flies through
space and automatically docks in the jumper bay when we come back through the
gate, how do you know it doesn’t have an auto pilot?” Ford challenged, his
voice rising again.
“I didn’t say it doesn’t
have one,”
Teyla’s calm voice broke
into their argument. “What is auto pilot?” she asked, her face creased in
confusion.
“The ship would fly
itself?” she pressed.
“Yes,” Ford insisted.
“No,”
A slight vibration began
beneath their feet, causing
“Oh crap,”
Part Three
Sora cut her eyes toward
“How much farther?” Sora
questioned, the words echoing over the sounds of four booted pairs of feet.
“Not very much,”
She came to a stop outside
of a door with a small irregular symbol on its outer surface. It slid open when
she touched the panel on the wall alongside it which bore a matching symbol.
Dim lighting, illuminated
at half-level, revealed a narrow area beyond. It hardly seemed fair to call it
a room as its width was little more than three feet across. It extended several
yards to a darkened control panel at its opposite end. On a side wall near the
panel at roughly chest height was a round metallic object which vaguely
reminded her of a steering wheel.
“It’s pretty tight in
here,” she told Sora, stepping slightly to the side to allow her to see the
close quarters.
Sora peered past her then
turned toward the guards. “Remain here,” she ordered brusquely. The guards
obeyed without question, stationing themselves just outside of the open
doorway.
At the far end of the wall, Weir came to a
stop, taking in the console. She reached automatically for the communication
device at her ear before remembering that Kolya had taken it.
Resigned, she took the
walkie-talkie Sora extended in her direction. “We’re here,” she announced after
depressing the talk button.
Silence greeted the
statement for several moments before Rodney’s voice sounded across the
connection. Weir noticed the more highly pitched tone of his voice and
immediately feared the worst.
“Yes the panel is lit,” she
answered his original question quickly, and then pressed on to the more urgent
worry. “How are things going there?”
“Oh, you know, big –.”
Rodney’s voice ended abruptly and was replaced by Kolya’s.
“Focus your attention on
the task at hand, Doctor. Both of you.” The last of the menacing words were
obviously intended for Rodney.
“Hurting us doesn’t help
your people’s cause,” she said, hoping still to reason with the man.
“I determine what helps my
people’s cause,” he replied, unmoved. “What does not help will be eliminated.
Continue your work.”
After a moment, Rodney
returned to the link. “Dr. Weir?”
She tried not to sound
defeated. “I’m here, Rodney. What do I
need to do?” She listened as he explained the simple procedure that needed to
be accomplished at each of the stations. When she was sure she understood, she
handed the walkie-talkie back to Sora.
“Kolya can’t be trusted,” she told the other
woman quietly as she punched in the few keystrokes on the console, and then
moved toward the wheel and began to turn it counterclockwise as Rodney had
outlined.
“You do not understand my
people,” Sora sneered.
“What if he decides you
aren’t good for the cause?” She pushed just a little more, testing the other
woman. “What if he decides that he’s better qualified to lead your people, and
that Atlantis should be his only? What then? Will you follow him, or will you
be eliminated?”
Sora’s eyes widened and
“You will not talk!” Sora’s
voice rose bitterly, and she hardened her stance and pointed the weapon more
directly at her.
“You are done here and we
will go to the next position.”
-- -- --
“Relax, Doc, we’re almost
there.” Ford’s almost cheery voice rang through the cabin of the bucking puddle
jumper.
“How can I relax?”
“Yeah, but only for about
five more minutes,” Ford replied. “Then we can get in and help the Major.”
“And how are we supposed to
do that?”
Ford grinned at him as a
side panel opened and the portable life-signs reader appeared near the pilot’s
seat.
Ford looked him over in a
measuring way. “You stay with the villagers and the jumper. Teyla and I will go
give the Major some back-up.”
He looked between Teyla and
Ford. They were both warriors in the true sense of the word. But he, Carson
Beckett, was a doctor. He didn’t walk around with a gun and shoot the bad guys.
It wasn’t his thing and he wasn’t good at it. He also wasn’t good at letting
his friends go out and fight alone when he might do something to help.
He grimaced and sighed
internally. “No, I’ll go with you.”
“Good man.” Ford seemed
pleased.
“Are you certain?” Teyla
asked, her gaze pressing into his.
“Of course, I’m sure,” he
responded, hoping she wouldn’t call him on it. “All of us have had some
training in the use of the weapons and self-defense measures. Besides, if it
comes down to it, I’ve got a healthy supply of hypodermics and I’m not afraid
to use them.”
-- -- --
John woke with a start,
gasping and sputtering. A smell, bitter and heavy seemed to sear a path through
his nostrils and into his skull. He coughed, trying to clear away the noxious
fumes, but it only added to the sudden pounding ache in his brain.
Instinctively he tried to move away, to see what it was that was causing the
problem, but his body wouldn’t respond to his commands and it took several
moments before the hazy world resolved into something recognizable.
Coughing a few more times,
he allowed his eyes to focus on Kolya. The man was seated across from him,
closing the lid on a small metallic canister.
Great, John thought, as the
container disappeared into one of other man’s pockets - probably the Genii
equivalent of smelling salts. Only worse. As the scent made its way out of his
nasal passages, other things registered, like a near loss of feeling in both
arms. He looked downward, and found that both his forearms were strapped
tightly to the chair’s armrests. Flexing his fists, he tested the bonds before
checking to see what means had been used to secure his legs and feet.
“Sorry I fell asleep
there,” he said, glancing back up at Kolya. “Don’t think it means that you’re
boring or anything.” He looked beyond the Genii soldier as a brilliant flash of
lightning illuminated the darkened skies outside. The rain was sheeting against
the windows as the storm bore down on them near full force.
Kolya ignored the remark,
and leaned forward slightly. “Where is the C4, Major?” he asked in a low-toned
voice.
John craned his neck,
hoping to see the rest of the
He turned back to Kolya.
“Storm is getting pretty rough out there.”
One of the guards
approached rapidly and buffed him alongside the head. It wasn’t an especially
hard hit, a love tap, really, but the quick tilt of the room and the sharp
spear of pain reminded him vividly that he’d recently been hit in that same
spot.
“That is not an acceptable
answer,” Kolya explained.
“I sorta got that,” John
responded, wishing he could wipe away the itchy feeling that began as blood
trickled along the side of his head. The dry patchy sensation near his temple
told him that this wasn’t the first blood he’d bled that day.
“Where is the C4?” Kolya
asked.
John glared at him. “I
forget. Head injury, you know.”
The soldier who’d whacked
him in the head stepped to his side. There was a deep grinding sound as the man
pulled what looked remarkably like an M-9 bayonet knife from its holder. A
noise echoed from the opposite side of the
“Dr. McKay.” Kolya looked
beyond John to speak to the gifted scientist. “Please explain the status of
your plan to Major Sheppard.”
John had to turn his neck
into a painful position to see his comrade. The look of complete absorption in
his work was gone, replaced by dread and uncertainty. He obviously didn’t want
to be a participant in whatever Kolya had up his sleeves.
“Th-the re-grounding
process is nearly complete,” he explained, looking uncomfortably about the
room. “A lightning strike took out the fourth grounding station as I suspected.
I have to keep refiguring the equations, but it appears that the plan is
working.”
“You may go back to your
work, Doctor McKay,” Kolya told him.
Sheppard was buoyed by the
sarcastic retort that he knew McKay had bitten back. It brought the hint of a
smile to his features as he turned back to face the Genii.
“Dr. McKay is quite an
asset,” Kolya stated.
“Yes, we tell ourselves
everyday how lucky we are to have him,” John replied, trying to ignore the
knife moving in closer, taunting.
Kolya reached for the
walkie-talkie and spoke into it, asking Sora if she could complete the
reconnection of the final channeling station. Sora’s affirmative answer started
a warning bell in the back of John’s mind.
“Have the guards return Dr.
Weir to the Command area while you finish the task,” Kolya ordered. After
ending the communication, he looked at John. “Where is the C4?”
“Go to hell.”
The hand with the knife
moved.
Part Four
Rodney jerked reflexively
at the muted grunt that escaped Sheppard when Kolya’s goon jabbed him in the
arm. All thought flew out of his head and he nearly dropped the handheld computer
again as he recalled vividly his own run-in with the same knife.
“Where is the C4, Major?”
The question that Kolya had been asking over and over reached his ears. The
Genii leader was calm and unaffected by the suffering he so casually caused.
“Where you’ll never find
it,” Sheppard replied, his voice strained.
Kolya’s man moved in again,
and Rodney cried out. “Can’t you see he’s not going to tell you anything? If
you’re going to take over Atlantis, you’ll find it eventually, anyway!”
“Why would I expend such
effort, Doctor McKay, when the solution to the problem sits before me?”
“B-Because . . . .” Rodney
cast around for an answer. “Because he can help you in other ways. . . .”
“Rodney –.” Sheppard
interrupted, his tone suggesting that he didn’t need to be defended, but Rodney
kept talking. He wouldn’t stand by and watch another being tortured.
“He’s the one carrying the
ATA gene,” he blurted the same argument that Sheppard had used earlier. For all
of the times he’d envied the Major’s affinity with using the Ancient
technology, it felt odd to be using it as a bargaining point – ignoring the
little white lie, of course. “And he uses it like he was born to it, almost
instinctively. He’s the best chance you’ve got of getting this city to work for
you.”
“Better than you?” Kolya
asked, focusing cold eyes intently on him.
Rodney faltered mentally,
and fought the urge to take a step backward. Then his natural inclination
kicked in. “Of course not,” he responded. “What I’m trying to explain to you is
that through some freak of nature, he’s the key to everything.”
“I’m flattered . . . I
think.” He heard John mutter.
“All the more reason to
break him, now,” Kolya said, and refocused on John, clearly demonstrating that
the conversation was of no more interest to him.
“He isn’t some animal to be
broken,” Rodney argued, panic at the possible return of the knife bearing down
on him. “He’s a human being who deserves to be treated with respect and
dignity.”
Kolya’s gaze didn’t waver
from John. “His worth is yet to be seen.”
-- -- --
“Is this not unusual?”
Teyla’s curious voice sounded.
“That is weird.” Ford spoke
from the opposite side of the console, the nervous quaver in his voice not
entirely camouflaged. He tapped a few
keys on the console, none of which responded. “What did you do, Doctor?”
“So explain why we’re about
to crash into the ocean!” Ford demanded.
“Arguing will not help the
matter,” Teyla reminded them. “Is there not something more we can do? Can we
not fly the ship, Doctor?”
“What?!”
“Everyone, brace for
impact!” Ford yelled back into the passenger section.
As the waters came ever
closer, the thoughts of Gilligan’s
-- -- --
She faltered half up the
stairs when her eyes settled on the tableau there, then continued along more
slowly, needing to confirm the situation. John was tied to a chair that more or
less faced the steps. Kolya sat across from him, his back to her, while one of
his men stood alongside John with a huge knife in his hand. There was blood on the
knife. Her mind stuttered over that realization for several moments before her
gaze drifted toward the growing area of darkened wetness on John’s arm that had
nothing to do with his having been out in the rain. There was another area, she
realized to her horror, on his leg. Her eyes slowly rose to meet John’s.
The usual cocky grin was
not in evidence. He was pale and perspiration beaded on his brow. He didn’t
seem happy to see her. As the soldier with the knife started toward her, she
began to understand why. Her heart plummeted to her toes.
“No!” Rodney’s outburst
from a far console drew her gaze. He was quickly subdued by another of the
guards.
The other two guards were
still at her back. Kolya remained seated, never turning to face her, and the one
with the knife was before her. There was nowhere to run to, as if she would.
She looked back toward Major Sheppard and steeled herself for what was to come.
Both he and McKay had already suffered at the hands of this merciless Genii
soldier; it was her turn, now, it seemed.
The soldier grabbed her
arm. Refusing to be dragged, she walked alongside him until she was standing in
Kolya’s line of sight. Still, the Genii leader didn’t look in her direction,
not even when the soldier pressed the point of the knife into the skin at the
back of her throat.
“Where is the C4, Major
Sheppard?” Kolya asked tonelessly.
Elizabeth could see the
struggle on John’s face, but she knew ultimately what his response would be.
“I have to show you,” he
said, “It’s not a place I can explain.”
For the first time during
their acquaintance, she thought she saw Kolya smile.
Part Five
Beckett squeezed his eyes
shut and gripped the armrests for dear life as the waters closed in over the
puddle jumper. A litany of impolite words played through his mind and he
vaguely noted the way the shuttle seemed to rebound after its initial entry.
The beating that the shuttle was taking from the winds was immediately gone,
leaving them surrounding by a cocoon of near stillness that was almost as
unnerving as the storm had been.
Carson open his eyes a
notch experimentally, immediately thereafter his jaw dropped.
All thoughts of death were
forgotten as he gaped at the previously darkened view screen. The clear surface
had changed. Transparent once again, it allowed them to look out upon the
simple beauty of the ocean beneath the city. All of Atlantis clearly wasn’t
above the surface.
Carson imagined that if not
for the darkened skies and the storm raging overhead, the sunlight shining
through the water might have reflected like brilliant gems through the
intricate designs that extended from the edges of the city. The segments were
reminiscent of the stained glass windows that the Ancients appeared to favor.
A thrill of excitement
washed through him at the thought that he was one of the first to see this
section of the ancient abode in tens of thousands of years. The rest of the
scientific teams were going to be beside themselves when they learned that the
puddle jumpers were viable under ocean vehicles as well.
“Wow.” Ford’s surprised
murmur drew him out of his awed observations. He spared the younger man a
glance.
“Yeah. Wow’s the word for
it.” He was transfixed by all that there was to see. The jumper steered itself
smoothly amid the many vari-shaped surfaces and odd protrusions. Lights were
coming on, shining down into the waters illuminating their way as they went. It
was as if the underside of the city was welcoming them just as inner portion
had when they’d arrived from Earth.
“Might that be the area to
which we are going?” Teyla asked the practical question and pointed toward a
large rectangle of dim light ahead.
Carson shared a look with
Ford.
“Sounds good to me,” Ford
volunteered.
“We’ll soon find out,”
Carson commented as the jumper began to slow. It came to a stop in what seemed
to be the center of the light. And then the jumper began to rise through the
waters upward into an opening beneath the city.
There was a small thump as
they settled against something and then continued to rise. The waters drained
away quickly and the door release at the back of the shuttle hissed as it
opened.
“Looks like we’re here,”
Aiden said.
“Wherever here is,” Carson
added.
“So we stick to the plan,”
Ford said, picking up his gun and standing.
“We stick to the plan,”
Carson agreed, following Ford and Teyla’s lead.
--
“Stop.” Kolya quietly
called a halt as he took the walkie-talkie from one of his men.
John limped the extra paces
which carried him to the wall and leaned against it. He completely ignored the
guard who had moved beside him, and tried to ignore Dr. Weir’s eyes on him. He
knew the look he’d see there, it was the one that silently asked if he was
okay.
Of course he wasn’t okay;
he had two holes in his body that didn’t belong there. Kolya’s man had known
what he was doing, too. The wounds were deep enough to slow him down, but not
enough to put him completely out of the action. But that didn’t mean that they
didn’t both hurt like hell.
Bending slowly, he checked
on the pieces of cloth that had been tied around the leg wound. He didn’t even
want to think about the medical procedures Beckett would have to perform on it
when they got out of this. Not if, but when. As far as he was concerned things
were proceeding exactly according to plan. Well, sorta exactly according to
plan. What he’d had in mind hadn’t included two stab wounds, being tied to a
chair, or having Elizabeth along for the ride. In the grand scheme, plans had
gone far worse. It was always the details that sent the plan into the toilet.
Moving back into an upright
position, he looked across at Weir, trying to get a subtle message to her. She
stared steadily back. He hoped that meant that she understood that she needed
to be ready when he made his move.
Sora’s disembodied voice
sounded across the radio link. She said something about needing more troops for
reconnaissance in the section of the city where the channeling rods were
located and named the men she wanted. Kolya agreed, and then clicked off the
connection.
“What more lies in that
section of the city?” The Genii commander asked.
“We haven’t explored all of
those areas yet,” Weir answered him coolly. “We believe them to be
predominately maintenance sections.”
“Could be monsters,” John
piped up. “Or rats. Great big ones.”
Kolya ignored the comment,
and ordered one of the guards to go to the area and to report back what he saw.
He added something more that was too low for John to hear, but it still piqued
his curiosity. Was all not peace, love and harmony in the Genii camp or was
Kolya just being cautious?
John didn’t really care. He
was just glad that he had one less guard to deal with.
“Continue,” Kolya ordered
as the guard started back in the opposite direction.
John gathered his strength
before he pushed himself away from the wall and continued to move painfully
down the corridor with Kolya’s remaining flunky shadowing him. The Genii commander moved along behind them,
keeping Weir close by his side.
--
“What the . . . ?” Rodney
tapped rapidly on the computer keyboard, going through his calculations once
more. Something just wasn’t right. And it had been before. He would not accept
the idea that he’d miscalculated.
One of the guards that
Kolya had left behind moved in closer. He wasn’t the madman with the knife, but
he was equally annoying. With a suspicious look, the soldier looked over all of
the active screens.
“Do you mind?” Rodney
asked, shooting the man a disgusted look. “Trying to save the city remember?”
The guard stared at him a
long moment before returning to his previous position a few steps away. But he
continued to watch closely as if in warning.
Rodney rolled his eyes. As
if one of Kolya’s lackeys could possibly have any clue what he was looking at.
Or understand the magnitude of the project that was being undertaken. Atlantis
wasn’t just some military outpost to be fought over. It was a living scientific
marvel. It needed to be preserved at all costs.
The final channeling rod
had been put back into place, and if with the lightning and the winds and the
debris that would follow, the city would be completely vulnerable.
If lightning was to strike
now, he wasn’t exactly sure what was going to happen. And Atlantis was far too
big a target to go unscathed for long in a storm of this magnitude. The
survival of the city was on his shoulders. Everyone, even the bad guys, was
depending on him.
Panic teased at the edges
of the adrenaline that kept him going. Always before his teammates were there
to keep him on task. But now he was alone. No one else to --
What was that? What was
that odd reading? Refocusing, he typed several commands into the keyboard and
tracked the power drain, displaying it on a smaller monitor. He surprised a
start of excitement. The drain was emanating from a portion of the city that
had sacrificed itself centuries earlier when the shield had begun to fail.
Could this mean?
A brilliant flash of
lightning shown through the large window overhead, reminding him that there was
little time. Determined, he took a final reading and went back to his
calculations, this time allowing for the changed energy consumption. Perfect.
He transferred the new
algorithm to the program he and Zelenka had created and executed it. Now they
were ready.
--
Elizabeth knew that John
was tiring. He was favoring his right leg more, and his steps were slowing
noticeably. Making matters worse, the corridor they were taking was on a slight
incline, no doubt increasing the strain on his injured leg. He had earlier
taken to walking with a hand along the wall, but Kolya had insisted that he remain
the center of the walkway.
He glanced back over his
shoulder. The dim lighting seemed to accentuate his pallor which, alongside
dried blood mixed with perspiration, only added to an increasingly grizzly
appearance. But it was the shadowed eyes, utterly devoid of humor, that
resonated with her.
“We should let him rest,”
she spoke up, turning on Kolya. “Nothing is gained by driving Major Sheppard to
exhaustion. The C4 isn’t going anywhere.”
Kolya completely ignored
her request, continuing along the corridor. It was as if she hadn’t spoken at
all.
“What did you expect,
Doctor?” John asked, his words ever so slightly slurred, his voice not nearly
as strong as it had been when they’d left the command center. “Mercy for one’s
enemies is what our Genii neighbors might call a tactical disadvantage.”
“That’s a very shortsighted
viewpoint,” Elizabeth couldn’t resist saying. “We have a mutual enemy. If we
work together we can defeat him. Together we are stronger, we could form an
alliance with other words and form a formidable force. There is a saying on our
world ‘United we stand.’ That is the way we can stand against the Wraith.”
“We also have a saying,
Doctor,” Kolya replied, though he didn’t look at her. “An army of many is only
as strong as its weakest link. Without Atlantis, you have nothing to offer.”
Elizabeth thought she
caught a half snort from John, and then, “I think he just called us the weakest
link.” He stumbled slightly, but continued on, listing again toward the wall,
uneven steps placing him on a crooked path toward it. “Probably better than
being called the missing link. Why don’t you tell him some of the great
examples of how people on our world worked together for the betterment of
mankind?”
Elizabeth’s eyes were
locked worriedly on his back, and for several moments she struggled over the
question. Then, to Kolya, “Eventually your people are going to have to change
their way of thinking. A world cannot survive . . . .”
Suddenly, she caught a view
of John from her peripheral vision. One minute he was limping along, the next,
he went down heavily. “John!” She called his name, and instinctively tried to
move toward him.
The floor had come up a lot
quicker than John expected, and pain resonated throughout his body. Despite the
adrenaline that coursed through his system, every reaction felt sluggish and
weighted down. He heard Elizabeth cry out and approaching footsteps as he
grabbed for the contraband that he’d stashed behind an ornate section of the
wall.
He rolled, pulling the pin
as he went, and then tossed the smoke bomb beyond Elizabeth, into the space
between Kolya and his man. Thick smoke began to pour out of the narrow
canister. He inwardly cheered as Weir continued running until she was on his
opposite side, allowing him to use the small advantage the smoke bomb afforded
to gather several more items from their storage spot.
He twisted back toward the
two Genii, and aiming through the growing smoke cover, squeezed off one shot
with his .9mm. A surprised gasp of pain registered distantly as he moved on to
the next target. Before he could pull the trigger, an iron fist slammed into
his chest. John only vaguely registered the jarring motion of being slammed backward
onto the floor.
--
--
The life signs reader
registered four persons somewhere up ahead. Aiden knew that all of those dots
could not represent friends as Major Sheppard had clearly communicated that
only he and Doctors McKay and Weir remained alive in the city. That was only
three friendlies.
He glanced back toward
Teyla and Beckett. Teyla was a solid warrior, Beckett looked a little nervous.
Still, three against four really wasn’t bad odds, especially with the element
of surprise and superior fire power on their side.
“We need to get in closer,”
he whispered to his two friends, “find out who they are.”
“How do you propose we do
that?” Beckett asked. “I’d be surprised if they don’t know we’re already here
what with all the noise that was made when we landed in that underwater bay
thing.”
Ford couldn’t argue
Beckett’s assessment, but they had to move forward with what they had. They had
gotten out of what he had already dubbed the lower jumper bay as quickly as
they could and were winding their way through the lower levels of the city.
“It appears that they are
moving toward us,” Teyla pointed out. “Why do we not lie in wait until they
approach?”
Aiden rolled the idea
around in his head and decided he liked it. “Okay. But let’s split up a bit.”
He pointed toward the device. “They’re going to have to come up this
cross-corridor. We can hide on either side here.”
Both Teyla and Beckett
nodded in agreement and they made their way quietly to the designated areas.
Teyla and the doctor occupied one side of the hall, while he took up the other
side. He kept the life signs indicator with him.
As the four dots drew ever
closer, he nodded across the small expanse to his companions, notifying them
that it was nearly time. Teyla nodded in understanding. Beckett swallowed hard
and gripped his weapon more tightly. Aiden looked into the doctor’s eyes,
willing him the strength to get through this. He then flattened himself against
the wall, preparing to wait out the few seconds before the group of four would
appear.
He was preparing to signal
Teyla and Beckett when he noticed that something was changing around them. The
other two seemed to recognize it as well. All eyes were drawn upward in
confusion as it dawned that the lights were getting noticeably brighter.
--
--
The world was hazy and
insubstantial. But he felt an urgency that prodded him to fight against the
desire to just quietly let himself be taken under. The sounds which floated
about above him began coalescing into recognizable words.
“. . . .can't do it,
Doctor. You are not a warrior.” Kolya’s voice. As cold and nasty as ever.
“I’ll do what I have to to
save my people.” That was Weir. That must mean. . . .
John’s eyes shot wide. He
blinked several times to be sure that the sight that greeted him through the
rapidly clearing smoke cloud wasn’t an illusion. Dr. Elizabeth Weir was
standing, in a perfect policeman’s stance, with his .9mm pointed toward Kolya.
The Genii had one foot
under him as if he’d been on his way back to his feet. Blood was splattered
along the side of his face, which confused John until he noticed that Kolya’s
weapon was a couple yards away and that there was a bloody looking tear near
the shoulder of his uniform. That was when he remembered the shot he’d fired
just before he’d gone down.
He struggled into a
half-sitting position with a grunt. His chest, and every other part of his
body, protested mightily making their complaints known. With all the dizziness,
pain and nausea flying around, never mind the complete lack of a big bloody
hole in his chest, no way was he dead.
A stiffening in Elizabeth’s
body revealed her awareness that he was back among the land of the living. “You
okay?” she asked over her shoulder, never looking away from Kolya.
“I’m not dead,” he managed,
deciding that he’d take the pain if it meant that he was still alive. Then
confusion settled in. “Why am I not dead?”
“Flak jacket,” she replied.
“Their technology is about the same as WW2.”
“Oh. Good.” The nausea and dizziness were starting to
abate, and John figured it was time that he crawled back into the fray. He got
his uninjured leg beneath him, braced his uninjured arm against the wall and
levered himself into a semi standing position. He gave things a moment to
steady themselves before straightening completely and starting to walk.
“And you thought we had
nothing to offer,” he chided Kolya as he checked that the downed Genii soldier
would not be causing them any more trouble. He took his gun for good measure.
The weapon didn’t even rate compared to his P90, but Elizabeth was looking
pretty comfortable with the 9 mil, and he had no intention of dividing her
attention away from Kolya to retrieve it.
He turned back to face
Kolya. “So, how about we give you a tour of what we like to affectionately call
the brig?”
“You should kill me.” Kolya
told him, not moving.
“Thanks for the advice,”
John snapped. “But that’s not the way we do things around here.”
“I will be your enemy
forever, and I will always come back.”
“Aw, threats. How
touching.” John gestured with the muzzle of the Genii weapon. “Get up. Slowly.”
He held his finger on the
trigger and his eyes locked on the other man as Kolya began to rise. He knew
given even half a chance, the other man would try something. He almost hoped he
did; it would give him a reason to make sure that he never had a chance to
fulfill his words.
As he contemplated exactly
what they would do about Kolya once they’d completely taken Atlantis back, the
overhead light inexplicably began to brighten. He wasn’t sure what it meant,
but he had just enough time to register the really bad feeling he had about it
before the corridor was suddenly plunged into complete darkness.
He knew in the milli-second
before the breath was knocked out of him that Kolya had made his move.
Part Seven
“Oh crap.”
Rodney’s words sounded amid the eerie glow of the battery operated lap tops.
For one heart-stopping moment, his mind froze as he contemplated the idea that
he might have broken Atlantis.
Just moments before, the plan had been working perfectly. He’d completed his
calculations and the mother of all lightning strikes had hit the city, jumping
from one place to the other and sparking other smaller bolts. The energy had
kept building until it topped out the scale. The lights had started to get
bright right after that and then nothing.
A breath passed in the darkness before he heard the shuffling feet of the
nearby soldiers. Their nervousness was making him nervous.
“Nothing to worry about,” he said in direct contradiction to his previous
comment. Hopefully ‘Oh crap’ didn’t translate well. Last thing he needed was
for over anxious soldiers to start shooting up things in the dark.
Then suddenly, there was a spike on the lap top and with a sound like a
generator winding up the lights came back on. He watched the screen as many
other systems began to cycle back in as well.
“What happened?” the nearest guard asked, looking uncertain as to how to
respond to the situation. McKay was sure that black outs in ancient cities
wasn’t covered in Genii Generic Bad Guy Training 101.
Despite all of his scientific knowledge and the many things he’d experienced
in his career, he was still a little confused, too. Then suddenly, things began
to click in his mind. An uncontainable grin spread its way over his features.
It was simplicity itself.
“Circuit breakers. It's circuit breakers!" He began to pace as worked
his way through the idea. "The Ancients must have installed a fail safe to
protect the city from a power overload,” he said, completely excited by how
flawlessly the system had worked even with the presence of the power generators
that had been brought from Earth. “It obviously kicked in when the lightning
strikes became overwhelming and just shut everything down. No doubt, when the
levels decreased they reset everything. Although, considering the incredible
amount of power the system was able to handle prior to the fail safe . . .
. ”
He paused at the blank look that came over the guard’s face. “Ugh, never
mind. Part of the plan.” He waved the man away and returned to his computer
screen. That had been a pointless conversation. He had much more important
things to do, like making sure that they’d be able to hold on to any power they
may have been able to harness, and after that, masterminding a way to get away
from these three goons stationed in the command area so that he could check on
his friends.
--
John barely had time to react when what felt like Kolya’s shoulder collided with
his midsection. Instinctively, he drove his arms downward, slamming the butt of
the Genii weapon against flesh and bone. Despite the grunt that Kolya emitted,
his momentum sent them both hurtling toward the unyielding material that made
up Atlantis’ walls. John's back took the brunt of the impact.
Pain receptors gone into overload took John’s legs out from under him and he
dropped like a stone taking Kolya with him to the floor. He heard the gun
clatter away somewhere beyond his head. Having landed more or less on top, John
tried to press his slight advantage by working to pin the broader man. But his
reflexes were slow and being concussed, stabbed, stabbed again, shot, and then
slammed into a really hard wall had a way of taking the strength out of a guy.
Still, he wasn't doing too awfully bad and was managing to keep Kolya
relatively under control until the man’s fist made contact with the side of his
face. He tumbled to the side off of the Genii, landing on the wounded arm.
Instead of going for the gun as John had expected him to, Kolya followed him
over and continued the punch fest. That was when it occurred to John that this
was so much more than war; it was personal, between himself and Kolya. Atlantis
barely fit into the picture. Kolya would not accept being bested by another man
and wanted to prove with his bare hands that he was warrior chief. John had no
problem with that; he had more than a little aggression to work off against the
other man.
Suddenly the lights came back up, and Elizabeth was there, still holding the
.9 mm. She directed it toward their new position and ordered Kolya to freeze.
The Genii was leaning over him, had one hand clutched in the material of John’s
vest, while one arm was drawn back, preparing to throw yet another punch.
John stared up at him, having a nearly irresistible urge to get in one more
blow, to put the other man’s lights out. But that’d only mean that they’d have
to carry him, which wasn’t a good bet at the moment. So, he satisfied himself
with taking in the beginnings of the ugly bruises the Genii would soon be
sporting.
“Lets try this again, shall we?” he gasped, after extricating himself from
their position on the floor. He willed himself to make it back to his feet
without stumbling. He then retrieved both Genii weapons, and after tucking one
into the back of his pants, he pointed the other at Kolya.
The Genii’s cold eyes held the promise that there would be another time, but
he didn’t speak, and John didn’t have to ask him to get up and start walking.
--
By the time Ford realized that the light from the life signs reader was
shining like a beacon in the night, he caught the muted sound of a footstep.
The noise was almost right on top of him. Before he could react, the lights
came on, bringing him face to face with the blonde woman from the Genii home
world and three other soldiers. The three men all had weapons trained on him.
He brought his hands slowly upward in surrender, locking gazes with Sora.
Her expression was brutal.
“Where is Teyla Emmagan?”
“Here I am.” Teyla announced, gathering the attention of the Genii. They
turned as a unit to see Dr Beckett and Teyla with P90s leveled on them. Ford
brought his weapon to bear, covering them from the other side, effectively
trapping the Genii between the three of them.
“Drop your weapons,” Ford ordered, clearly the one in charge.
The three guards looked to Sora for direction. After throwing hateful looks
all around, she nodded and the men slowly lowered their weapons to the floor.
“Radios, too,” Aiden added, pointing toward the devices. That drew another
furious glare from Sora, but they complied and the electronics were dropped to
the floor alongside the guns.
“Dr. Beckett,” Ford called. “If you would retrieve their weapons?”
“Happy to lad.” The doctor replied, stepping somewhat nervously away from
Teyla toward the pile of weapons.
One of the soldiers shifted as Beckett drew closer and Ford got the point
across with a gesture of his P90 that there was a bullet with the soldier’s name
on it if he tried anything. The soldier settled down with a glance toward Sora.
He caught Beckett’s nod of appreciation as he moved out into the cross
corridor. It only took several moments for him to gather all of them up into
his arms. Peripherally, Ford noted that as the doctor started to straighten
back up, his body jerked in shock as he stared beyond the Genii. The weapons
began to spill from Beckett’s arms just as a shot rang out. And then all hell
broke loose.
Carson had long heard the
saying that one’s life flashed before one’s eyes just before they died. Though
he’d always discounted it as a medical improbability, he was ready to revise
that opinion when he saw the Genii soldier appear at the end of the long
corridor wielding a big triple barreled gun.
All of the events that led
to his arrival at Atlantis rushed to mind, making him wonder that such a
fantastic journey would end there and then at the apex of a dimly lit corridor.
He didn’t remember dropping
the arm load of weapons, or even ducking for cover. But the flashes of light
burned their way onto his corneas, and the sound rang through his ears.
He thought he heard Ford
yell something and then it seemed that bodies were moving everywhere. Four of
those bodies wore Genii uniforms and they were moving toward the weapons. It
was reflex that caused him to kick the guns, scattering them before Sora or
either of the men could reach them.
Another shot sounded and
one of the Genii jerked before crashing to the floor. The other three, it
seemed, froze in place. Carson’s gaze darted between the downed man and the
corridor ahead. He blinked. It was completely empty.
“Get up!” Ford’s orders
toward the remaining Genii penetrated, jumpstarting him to action. Moving on
automatic, he went to the downed man’s side and quickly began to check him
over. Even before he tried for vitals, he knew it was too late. A life lost.
“What the hell happened?”
Aiden demanded as he and Teyla secured Sora and the other two guards with
restraints.
Carson rubbed a hand over
the man’s eyes, closing them. “There was another one down there,” he said,
still feeling breathless from his own near death experience. “He shot at me.
But he’s gone now.”
“I wasn’t hallucinating.”
“It’s just that he didn’t
show up on the life signs indicator before,” Aiden replied, his eyes remaining
suspicious. Carson wasn’t ignorant of how the Lieutenant felt about him as a
fighter.
“Well maybe he was out of
range,” Carson shot back. “I didn’t imagine seeing him and I certainly didn’t
imagine being shot at!”
“Lieutenant.” Teyla’s voice
interrupted whatever Ford might have said. She gestured toward the wall at
Carson’s back.
Carson followed the
Athosian’s gaze. An arc of impact marks shown along the surface mere inches
from where his head had been. He gulped.
--
Kolya’s radio beeped and
the trio stuttered to a halt. Elizabeth glanced over at the Major. She
suspected that his exhaustion wasn’t feigned this time. His skin was pale,
lines of strain were etched around his mouth and his eyes had taken on a glassy
look.
As a voice sounded across
the radio link awaiting acknowledgement, they got moving again.
“Sir, respond.” The voice came again, this time with a heightened edge of alertness to
it.
“You’re running out of
time.” A malevolent grin spread across Kolya’s face.
“You’re just a regular
one-track record, aren’t you?” John managed in a weak voice. In opposition to
the way he sounded and looked, his feet began to move a bit faster, pushing
them on toward the brig.
“John . . . ,” she started,
wanting to tell him to take it more slowly, conserve his strength. But the look
he shot her direction stopped the comment.
“We’re almost to your new
home,” he said, more for her benefit, she suspected, than Kolya’s.
The radio went quiet and
stayed quiet.
--
Rodney was so enthralled
with Atlantis’ fledging new shield, temporary though it might be that he missed
whatever had been said across the Genii radio link. By the time the increased
tension in the room registered in his mind, the soldiers had already gone into
action. All of them were fiddling with the controls on their radios – changing
the frequency, he suspected.
“What’s going on?” he
demanded, focusing on the nearest guard.
The guard barely spared him
a look as he moved into a huddle with the four other soldiers in the control
area. They spoke so softly that he was only able to catch a portion of what was
being said - something about reinforcements.
“I want to know what’s
happening,” he repeated, more loudly as he closed in on the group. Clearly
something was up. Whatever was bad for the Genii had to be good for Atlantis.
A weapon raised in his
direction halted his steps. “Something has gone wrong, hasn’t it? You might as
well tell me what it is. What am I going to do about it anyway? It’s pointless
to . . . .”
Rodney’s words trailed away
as the soldier with the raised gun began to move toward him. His expression
didn’t spawn any thought that he might be rationalized with. He moved into
Rodney’s personal space and he took a step backward, bumping against the
console.
“Or . . . I could stay
right here . . . .” Rodney conceded and inched back toward his lap top. “More
city saving, stuff.” He took the fact that the soldier didn’t pulled the
trigger as a sign that he could go back to work and set into a furious typing
pace on the small keyboard.
The soldier held his position
like a hovering shadow half between Rodney and the group of arguing Genii men.
It didn’t take a scientific genius to figure out that they were arguing about
the gate. That one of them pointed emphatically toward the DHD clinched it. But
it did take a scientific genius to do what Rodney did next.
--
They’d walked out of the
brig in silence, leaving the Genii military leader behind bars. John had moved
with single minded determination into the outer corridor and surveyed the
surrounding area before half-slumping against the wall and closing his eyes.
“I’m fine. I just need a
minute.”
Elizabeth nodded, though
she was sure he didn’t see the action. “I’d imagine something a little longer
than a minute is in order.”
“A week feels about right.”
John’s eyes creaked open and he shot her a smile. Though tinged with
exhaustion, it was good to see.
“So what’s next?” she
asked. She was over her head in what amounted to a military situation. The next
step would be his call.
“Next we see where our back
up is.” He sorted through the items that he’d stashed in the corridor and
pulled out his communicator device and routed it over his ear. “Sheppard to
Jumper Two. What’s your 20?”
Surprise rolled over his
features almost immediately, followed quickly by pride. “They’re here on
Atlantis,” he said between listening to the voice speaking in his ear. The
smile faded away from his face as he continued to listen.
“Okay, we’ll we’re at the
brig now. Get here as fast as you can. We’ll meet you half way.” They had taken
no more than a few steps when suddenly, without warning, Atlantis was plunged
into darkness once again.
-- --
Forty-five, forty-four, forty-three. . . . . The panicked count down played through Rodney’s brain
as he half-crawled across the darkened control room, a lap top clutched under
one arm. The pounding of his heart all but drowned out the sounds of the
confused Genii soldiers, and though he knew intellectually that they shouldn’t
be able to see him, he expected to feel a bullet slamming into him at any
moment.
He crawled past the base of
the last console at what his brain identified as second number thirty-one. He
was several yards away from the nearest transporter alcove. He had less than
thirty seconds to navigate the space, avoiding a couple of support beams, on
memory alone. Having programmed Atlantis to shut down for forty-five seconds
before opening the transporter door and locking out all gate functions.
A bright beam cut through
the darkness, making an arc somewhere above his head. He froze, nearly losing
the lap top in the process. Several tense panicky moments passed before he
realized that he’d forgotten to count.
“He’s gone!” A voice
yelled. Probably the guard who’d had the gun on him, Rodney decided. Torn
between keeping absolutely still and making a run for it, his mind latched onto
a compromise. The quick flashing of light had revealed his proximity to one of
the support beams.
Not cut out for this, not cut out for this, not cut
out for this played through his mind
as he struggled not to breathe so loud and made for the column. Where were the
military types when you needed them? Ducking downward as low as he could, he
concentrated on sounds the men were making. Other lights began to flash around
the room behind him.
Cursing himself for losing
track of time, he began to crawl straight out toward what he hoped was the
transporter alcove. The lights could come back up at any moment, and he wanted
to be close enough to dive into the parting doors. He kept crawling until his
head bumped against something sending off sparks behind his eyes. The lap top
clattered to the floor echoing in the room like a shot.
The lights came back up.
Rodney reacted. Shots rang
out behind him as he ran the few steps into the open transporter alcove. He
thought he felt a bullet fly past before he crashed against the inner wall and
down onto his backside. The doors began to slide shut just as one of the
running soldiers stopped and took aim.
“You’ve got to be kidding
me!” John declared to the darkness. “Enough already!” Trying to remain positive
was becoming a challenge in the current situation.
“Perhaps it’s an effect of
the storm,” Elizabeth’s voice reached him in the darkness, offering a possible
explanation.
“Yeah. Maybe,” he agreed,
fingering the switch on his P90 that turned on the built in light. “All a part
of McKay’s plan?”
An expressively raised brow
revealed that she wasn’t discounting the idea.