Trust Once Broken | SGA John Sheppard

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The Return Part II

The General from earth, O'Neill, was not pleased to hear the favor they needed involved swimming underwater into a flooded control room. Kai didn't blame him. McKay's description of what he was looking for and what he had to do was vague at best. Impressively, the General's snark could rival Sheppard's, which was something she hadn't noticed in the brief time they had met on earth.

Once the bay was drained everyone but McKay filed out of the jumper. Kai had offered to stay with him, but he waved her off, shoving an ARG into her chest. Kai begrudgingly followed the others.  She didn't like the idea of leaving McKay alone with the Replicator, even if it was inactive.

The door to the control room was still locked, containing the water which had caused the trouble in the first place. John led the way through a maintenance hatch and up a level so they could rendezvous with the others at the maintenance ladder McKay had said the General would have used to access the control room.

Kai stayed near the back of the group, keeping her senses sharp as she listened for anyone approaching. She hadn't ever encountered a replicator herself, but she was sure she would hear them before they appeared.

As they approached, John slowed, a frown crossing his face. John crouched down and lifted up a spent shell casing.

"They have been captured?" Teyla asked, she had her ARG up and was looking around warily. She had been assigned to keep an eye on both Weir and Beckett as they moved through the halls. Ronon had stepped past the group to watch the hall in front of them while Kai watched their rear.

John's mouth flattened into a grim line. "Looks like..." he couldn't honestly come up with another reasonable explanation. O'Neill wouldn't have missed the opportunity to rendezvous if he was able and the spent shell casings were telling. He glanced around but didn't see any blood. There wasn't any damage to the walls nearby, which meant whatever they were shooting at didn't bleed. Replicators.

Elizabeth shifted her weight uneasily. She didn't have the field experience of even Beckett and she couldn't help but feel exposed here. "Which means their minds will be probed for information any minute now."

John nodded grimly, they were running out of time. He pulled his radio from his belt. "McKay," John said, his voice sharp. "Fire up that virus."

"I'm working as fast as I can," McKay snapped back in a grumpy voice.

Sheppard sighed and tightened his grip on the radio. They didn't have time for McKay being McKay right now. They had no backup and only four real fighters out of their little group of seven. "The replicators have O'Neill and Woolsey."

"Unfortunately, that information can't make me work any faster," McKay snarked, refusing to be cowed.

John's mouth flattened angrily, but he nodded to himself. He turned to the group. "This way," he called with a jerk of his chin and he jogged off down the hall. Ronon and Kai shared a look and the two of them followed the group, keeping an eye on every hall and doorway they passed.

The radio activated again a few moments later and McKay's voice came through, elevated with excitment. "Standby, I've got his power levels about as high as I am comfortable with, I'm going to try to get him..." his voice dragged off.

Kai's head snapped up, her gaze meeting John's from fifteen feet away. There was something to the edge of McKay's voice and she heard something else in the background.