Reliquary

by Martha Wells

  McKay glared at him, then took a filament-thin loop of clear cable out of the floor access and did something with it inside the generator's panel.

  John felt the shudder travel through the wall before he heard the explosion. The abrupt blast came from the south, from the outer part of this section, and it wasn't at all distant. Oh, crap, John thought, aghast, what the hell did he do?

  His expression of stunned dismay bought them an extra few seconds as Dorane looked first at him, then at McKay, who was staring at the generator as if he had never seen it before. "What was that?" Dorane demanded.

  Still looking at the generator, Rodney shook his head, as if really baffled. Then he grimaced in relief and said, "Oh, there it goes." He shoved himself back just as silvery sparks fountained from the access, shooting up toward the ceiling.

  Even under low power, the ATA didn't so much switch on as burst to life inside the walls. John was suddenly aware of circuits threaded in the metal behind him, felt something whoosh through piping as if the room was drawing a breath; he knew exactly what was about to happen. Ducking around the bewildered Koan, he winced away from the sparking generator. The emergency lights flickered, a wailing Atlantean klaxon sounded, and all four doors shot open. John slammed Ford out of his way, feeling the first blast of something that wasn't air. McKay was on his feet and John tackled him, sending them both out the nearest door and into the corridor. They landed hard and John thought close, close, come on, close at the door. Somebody got off a burst from a P-90 and bullets bounced off the silver wall panel right above their heads, just before the door slid shut.

  Rodney was glaring up at him. "Oh fine, you just broke half my ribs."

  John rolled off him, asking, "What about Ford and the others?" He shoved unsteadily to his feet, dragging McKay with him. He had gotten a lungful of the gas released by the emergency system and his throat felt raw. He could hear Koan howling and pounding on the door behind them, but it refused to budge.

  McKay was red-faced and breathing hard, and he had to steady himself against the wall. But he said, "They're fine. The system will sense that there's no fire and flush the room with outside air."

  That was a relief, at least. "God, Rodney, I said `diversion' not `blow up half the city!"' John started down the corridor, coughing. "And what was that stuff, halon?"

  McKay hurried after him. "It's similar. And I'm fairly confident that the Ancients wouldn't use a fire suppressant that was poisonous to humans. That sparking was just a harmless light show, and the explosion was just the grounding station in this wing-

  "Oh, was that all? A harmless naquadah light show? And don't we need that station for grounding electricity?" John took the next corridor intersection. The lights were a little dimmer, and he couldn't sense any Koan moving towards them. But he could hear the control device heading rapidly away from the direction of the blast, trying to get back to Dorane, looking for a way around the sealed doors now blocking the direct path.

  McKay waved his hands like John was being unreasonable. "That wasn't actually naquadah, that was just electricity, and this section can do fine without a discharger-for a while, unless there's a storm, or a buildup of static- Anyway, I created a small power surge in the generator that started a feedback loop between it and the grounding station. With Dorane shutting down most of the city systems, I wasn't sure the fire-control was still online. It probably helped that your Ancient gene panicked and set off the protocols." Rodney stopped at a wall console at the end of the corridor and tapped a rapid sequence into it. "Now that the firecontrol is active I can tell it to block access to the generator room, which should seal off all the doors in this section."

  "Dorane will have to get the doors to open individually." John was starting to feel a little better about the whole 'let's blow important and dangerous stuff up as a distraction' plan.

  "So will we, but I'll be faster at it than he is." McKay finished keying in the sequence and the panel beeped quietly, displaying a series of Ancient characters. "Right, that should do it."

  "Good. Now come on." John started down the corridor to the outer portion of the wing. The device was moving fast and he didn't want to lose it.

  McKay jogged to catch up with him, but protested, "Why are we going this way? We should go-"

  "Beckett and Zelenka thought Dorane had to have some kind of device that's helping him control our people. I think I saw him with it back at the repository, I just didn't know what it was. It's using his version of the ATA, and I can hear where it is." John barely paused at the next intersection, knowing his quarry was already about two corridors ahead. The emergency lighting was growing dimmer; this roundabout route took them into a part of the wing that had been damaged in the flooding just before the city rose from the sea bottom. The ATA was just a low background whisper, blending with the distant sound of the sea outside the walls, making the sour thread of the controller device much easier to follow. "Any reason he'd give it to someone else to carry?"

  McKay gestured erratically. "Lots of reasons. That personal shield might interfere with any device emitting a signal. Or the device might interfere with the shield. We have no idea how compatible his version of the gene is with the real thing, and those shields are highly attuned to whoever's wearing them." He added in exasperation, "And just where is everybody? Didn't you go "What about me? Us? We need to be rescued too!"

  "You need to wait your turn, Rodney." The air was getting dank, and it was laced with the odor of stale seawater. Somewhere off in the dark corridors there were doors that were permanently sealed, deep shafts jammed with sand and sea wrack, rooms full of strange equipment that no longer operated. John knew this section fairly well; they weren't far from the passage out to the grounding station McKay had blown up. He didn't think Teyla had been through here before, and the way she kept trying to take direct routes suggested that Dorane was giving her instructions instead of simply commanding her to return to him and letting her find her own way. Hopefully that was because she was still trying to resist him.

  McKay caught John's arm, saying, "About the waiting thing." He sounded worried and deeply uncomfortable. "That drug Dorane gave you, he said- He's probably lying, but he said-"

  John pulled free and kept walking. "Rodney, I know, Beckett scanned me. And if Dorane said how long it would be, don't tell me, all right? I don't want to be looking at a clock while I'm doing this."

  "Wait, wait!" Rodney caught up, staring at him incredulously. "Carson knows about this and he didn't do anything?"

  "Like what? He didn't have any time."

  "I can't believe that! He's supposed to be so damn brilliant and he just let you walk out of there-"

  down there to get the Wraith stunners-"

  "Yes. Bates is getting our people out of-"

  "Rodney, for God's sake, shut up about it!" After a short curve the corridor opened into a walkway over a larger chamber. "And shut up, period. You want her to hear you?" The few working emergency lights made the big space look as if it was etched in black and silver, and John could see it was empty. He paused before stepping out onto the walkway, trying to get his bearings. Teyla was past this point, down and to the right somewhere in the other corridor that led off the lower level of this room.

  "Who? I don't even know what we're doing!" McKay whispered furiously.

  "We're looking for Teyla." John thought he had said that already, but even in panic mode, McKay wouldn't have forgotten or misheard a piece of information as vital as that. It scared John the way nothing else had so far; they didn't have much time to pull this off, and he couldn't afford to lose his concentration. He started across the walkway, not wanting McKay to notice the moment of uncertainty. "I think Dorane gave her the device."

  Fortunately, McKay had too many other things to panic about to notice. "How are we going to get it away from her? You don't even have a gun."

  "That part's a little fuzzy," John admitted.

  "Oh, God. This is a woman who puts on a dress to beat the c
rap out of you in that stupid stick fighting, and now you're dying, how are you going to-"

  "Rodney, can we go, I don't know, maybe a minute without you reminding me that I'm dying? And you really need to shut up." John found the stairway down to the lower level of the room and started down it. He stopped abruptly and McKay bumped into him from behind. "She's coming back." There were two doors in that lower corridor that he distinctly remembered were wedged open, the metal around them buckled when the pressure from the sea had hit this section. After that he thought the corridor led back into the powered portion of the wing, but the fire-control must have blocked her path again.

  John turned, and McKay scrambled back up the stairs. John pushed him in the direction of the sheltered corridor access, and McKay hurried back along the walkway in the dark. He stopped at the doorway, flattening himself against the wall, and John crouched down where he was, at the head of the stairs, trying to fold in on himself and blend in with the darkness and the silvery material of the walkway.

  He felt ridiculously exposed, and it was hard to remember that for Teyla and McKay, the emergency lighting was barely existent and the room was almost as dark as a moonless night. An instant later he heard her footsteps, the light tread of her boots on the metal. She wasn't bothering to be quiet; Dorane probably hadn't thought to give that order.

  John stopped breathing when he heard her come up through the doorway below. She started up the stairs, and he grimaced. He had been hoping she would cross the room on the lower level and he could drop down on her from above.

  She reached the top of the stairs and started to turn back toward the corridor access. John launched himself at her the same instant she must have sensed his presence. She was turning toward him, lifting her P-90 when he slammed into her. They hit the walkway, John on top, flattening the gun to her chest. The device was right there pressed between them, in the lower right hand pocket of her tac vest, the bastardized ATA sending a jolt of pain right through John's head. He felt her fingers scrabbling for the P-90's trigger and used his claws to rip through the cord holding it around her neck. He jerked it out of her grasp and lifted up just enough to fling it off the balcony.

  She took advantage of the moment to roll them both, knocking him sideways into the railing and trying to shove him under the lower rail. Sinking his claws into her tac vest kept him from going off the walkway, and he got the heel of his hand under her chin and pushed her back. Then it was a mad scramble, with Teyla trying to do as much damage as possible and tear herself away, and John trying to hold on and get to the controller. Then he twisted in the wrong direction to duck a blow to the throat, and she tried to plant a knee in his groin. John writhed desperately to avoid it, but managed to keep one hand hooked in her vest. She clawed the pistol out of her holster, but John went for the device instead, ripping it out of her pocket. She cried out, shrill and pain-filled, and dropped the pistol, grabbing for the device.

  Then McKay yanked it out of John's hand, slamming it against the walkway to get the case open and ripping the crystals out.

  Teyla froze, gave a heartfelt gasp of relief, and collapsed on top of John. He slumped, letting his head fall back, taking a deep breath.

  "Are you okay?" McKay asked, hovering anxiously over them. "Is she okay? Teyla?"

  Teyla was a warm weight, limp and utterly still. "I think she's out." John rolled her off, McKay catching her and helping him ease her down onto the walkway. John pushed himself up on one elbow and felt for the pulse in her neck; it was strong, and she seemed to be breathing normally. He just hoped she wasn't in a coma, that they hadn't just given everybody under the influence of the control drug brain damage.

  McKay nodded, relieved. "If this means everybody he gave that drug to just collapsed, then all we have is the Koan to worry about." He winced. "And I said that like it was a happy thought."

  "It is a happy thought. The Koan we can shoot." John pushed himself up, grabbing the railing and leaning on it until he could stand up straight again. He found the pistol on the walkway, checked the clip and put the safety on, then tucked it into the back of his belt. He reached down for Teyla. "Help me with her. Dorane knows her last position and we need to get out of here.

  "Right." But as McKay took her other arm, Teyla twitched and opened her eyes. McKay grimaced and muttered, "Uh oh," but her expression was bewildered and frightened.

  John leaned over her, brushing the tangled hair out of her eyes. He was just relieved she was conscious. "Teyla, it's us, Sheppard and McKay. We've got to get you moving, all right?"

  After a moment, she nodded in relief and recognition, and they got her up off the walkway and sort of walking between them, though she had difficulty getting her legs to move. From the hard grip she had on his shoulder and the collar of McKay's shirt, John thought she was glad to see them.

  They got her off the walkway and into the corridor, John steering them away from the area near the generator room and in toward the center section of the city. He wanted desperately to know what was going on in the operations tower, to find out if Bates had released the prisoners yet and how close he was to- John halted suddenly, making Teyla and McKay stumble. In the floor below his feet, radiating out of the walls, he felt the ATA rushing back to life and awareness, a dull roar of sound that started at the center of the city and spiraled outward. It scared the hell out of him for an instant and he couldn't think what was causing it, if the city was about to blow up, sink into the ocean, or lift off the planet. Then the emergency lights flickered and the swell of sound dropped a little, settling into what something told him was a normal level. "I hope that's what I think it is," he said under his breath, waiting tensely for confirmation.

  Watching him anxiously, McKay demanded, "Oh God, what now?"

  The tenor of the ATA changed and John knew lights were coming on in other sections. "We're getting full power back." With his free hand, he dug the sunglasses out of his pocket just before the corridor lights brightened to full strength. He kept his eyes squeezed shut until he could get the glasses on. "Hopefully that means Bates took back the `gate room and Grodin's restarting our systems."

  "Finally," McKay said in relief "If we have the com back and our radio traffic isn't jammed-"

  Teyla dug her fingers into John's shoulder. "Major," she managed to say, her voice weak and uncertain. "I remember- He brought something with him, in the jumper. Another device..."

  "Crap." John exchanged an incredulous look with McKay. "Another controller?"

  "No, a weapon." She was struggling to get the words out, her face sheened with sweat. "He said... it would prevent Atlantis from being occupied again."

  McKay looked simultaneously frightened and outraged. "A bomb? We scanned for that, the repository didn't have any munitions or explosive materials left, certainly nothing big enough to do more than-" He stopped suddenly, eyes widening. "Unless it's a-"

  "A biological weapon," John finished, dragging them both into motion again. Teyla was still wearing a headset, probably because Dorane had never bothered to tell her to take it off. John took it, getting it over his ear while McKay found the base unit in the pocket of her tac vest and switched it on. "Which jumper, Teyla?"

  "Five, the one...we used to bring the Koan."

  The radio crackled with static and John said, "Bates, come in, this is Sheppard. What's your position?"

  "This is Bates. We've retaken the `gate room and-"

  "Bates, I need you to seal off the jumper bay. We have a possible bioweapon in Jumper Five-"

  John gave Bates the short version of the situation and got an acknowledgement, the radio cutting off to the sound of Bates yelling for Ramirez.

  "Oh, God." McKay was muttering under his breath, running through a list of everything horrible that could be in a biological bomb. "Dorane has to know about the city's quarantine protocols-"

  "Yeah. He's either got a way to turn them off or he's got something that the city can't stop that way." John knew which one he was betting on. And h
e felt like he should have expected this. Dorane knew how many of us there were, he knows how big Atlantis is, that there was no way he could round up all of us. And he knew we were just that dangerous. The bioweapon could have been insurance, making certain there would be no survivors left to free prisoners in the repository or to build bombs to lob through the `gate. Or it could just render everybody helpless for collection by the Koan.

  Two corridor turns further, they came to the first working transporter, the colored crystal doors sliding obediently open as soon as they came within range. They got Teyla inside, and the destination console with its map of the active transporters opened for John with a roar of white noise. He realized he hadn't heard the ATA as music for a long time, even as weird alien not-quitemusic. He hit the location for the transporter in the operations tower, nearest the `gate room.

  The trip took less than a heartbeat, but the transporter and everything else dissolved into an intense burst of agony. As the doors opened John pitched out and rolled around on the floor, clutching his head, holding in a scream. Finally the pain faded enough that he realized McKay was kneeling beside him, snarling at someone, "It's killing him, what the hell do you think?"

  "Rodney, shut up," John grated out. He could taste blood at the back of his throat. He told himself, your brain isn't actually leaking out of your ears; itjustfeels like it. He managed to get his eyes open and the bright light stabbed through his head; he didn't remember losing the sunglasses.

  He didn't know why this was a shock; he had known it was getting progressively worse, that it wasn't going to stop, that he was going to get more and more sensitive to the ATA until it finally killed him. Somehow part of him just hadn't believed it until now. Going through the 'gate would probably make my head explode. Not that that was going to be a problem. He heard Rodney order someone to find Beckett, and John managed to say evenly, "Tell them we need the hazmat gear up here now."