Fighting Passions - Ronon Dex - Stargate Atlantis

A Spy! PT. 3

After some intense time together Rodney and I call Weir and Sheppard to come to meet us in the control room. 

"What have you found?" Elizabeth asks. 

"Guess what? Turns out there's no bomb after all." 

"Technically, there no explosive device. The explosion will happen but not here. Now, with the Wraith coming we'll need to cloak the city?" I correct.

"Yes." 

"Well, in order to do that, we need to reconnect the ZedPM in order to supply the necessary power." 

"And what about the Stargate?" 

"I've physically disabled the DHD it won't be able to dial, so it won't be a problem. Now, the ZedPM, however, will be. Now as you know the Zero Point module controls the flow of massive amounts of power." 

"Like a dam." Sheppard states.

"No, it's not like a dam, it's more like... actually yes, it's like a dam. If you overload the dam, it breaks, which is why the Ancients put in place failsafes to prevent such a thing from happening."

"Like a  spillway."

I chuckle at his continued comparisons and McKay's clear annoyance. 

"Could we just stick with failsafes?" He pauses to look at the Colonel to shrug and then continues. "The problem is our Trust operative figured out a way to Atlantis' operating system and disable the failsafes, but mask it in a way that the city sensors didn't detect it." 

"So the dialing of Earth would cause the ZPM to overload?" Our leader asks.

I nod. "Yeah, and given the dialing of another galaxy requires an enormous amount of power, we're talking about a catastrophic overload. The explosion would be so large it would destroy the city and the planet too." 

"Can the failsafes be re-enabled?" John asks.

"Yes, but whoever it was who did this anticipated the possibility that it would be discovered and they put in a place a code to block access to it," McKay explains. 

Cadman speaks up for the first time. "And I'm gonna guess that cracking this code isn't gonna be easy." 

"No, not at all," McKay says sarcastically. "It is extremely complicated."

"But for now you've already disabled the DHD so it's impossible to dial Earth."

McKay and I exchange a look. "Yeah, but unfortunately, any number of systems can be used in conjunction with each other to, uh, overload the ZedPM. It'd be a much more gradual build-up than dialing the Gate, which would cause an instantaneous power spike, but, um equally as effective in its results," He explains.

"And we can't disconnect the ZPM because we need the cloak for when the Wraith cruisers arrive."

I nod. "Exactly! Which is why the bomber activated the distress beacon. Which connects the Wraith coming to Atlantis to the bomb." 

"Alison come with me to interview Kavanagh again, please?" 

I follow her to the interrogation room, giving my friends a shy smile and a wave goodbye.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Rewriting Atlantis' operating system and disabling the failsafes, now that takes someone with incredible intelligence." Weir starts.

"You mean like Doctor McKay?"

"And also someone who's very eager to leave Atlantis shortly before the weekly dial-in to Earth." 

"Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Doctor Zelanka currently stuck off-world somewhere? Why isn't he a suspect?" 

"Our list of suspects isn't open for discussion." 

I jump in, being in the room. "Off the record though, Zelenka did not want to go at all, and I couldn't ever picture him working for the Trust." 

"Oh, but you can picture me?" 

"In a heartbeat," Our leader answers. 

Kavanagh looks upset but I can't be sure if he's being genuine or not. "I see." He removes his glasses, "Guilty until proven innocent."

"I've been going over the communication logs from the Daedalus and it seems that you sent three unauthorized encoded messages back to Atlantis shortly after the dial-in was halted."

"I have a few friends here I was concerned about. I wanted to see if they were alright." 

That isn't what he said earlier and Elizabeth catches it too. "I thought you said you didn't have any friends here." He gives her a rueful smile, and she continues. "Now, the messages were encrypted, but don't worry, I've got people deciphering them right now." 

"What do you want from me?" 

This pushes her. "I want the access codes so I can re-enable the ZPM failsafes!" 

"Well, if you're waiting for me to tell you, then you'll be waiting a while, seeing as I have no idea what that code is." 

"No, I think you do know it. And since I don't have the time to wait anymore, I'll just have to decide the quickest way to get it from you." 

This causes the arrogant, yet insecure, man to laugh. "Like what? Are you gonna torture me?"

Weir doesn't answer but just stares back, and he just drops his head down.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

We're staring at the screen showing the Wraith cruisers getting ever closer. 

"Could the cloaking cause the ZPM to overload?" Weir asks McKay. 

"Yes, but I can, uh turn off some of the systems to keep the power levels short of an overload." 

Sheppard speaks up next, and I'm starting to feel that I'm missing Teyla and Ronon, especially if these are our final days. "Maybe we should start thinking about evacuating the city." 

"Well, there's not a lot of options there. Still, it can't hurt to have a plan ready, if we can think of one. I'm going to go find Ronon." I say and walk away. I'm quickly followed by the LT. Colonel.

"Allison!" 

I turn around." Yeah?"

"You doing okay? That was a pretty abrupt exit?" 

"I'm okay, just missing my friends." He gives me a look that tells me he knows that that isn't all of it, "And maybe I'm worried that if this is all that we have left, I wish I was able to say goodbye to everyone I care about." 

"We'll get out of this." 

"I hope." 

"We're going to have a conference... bring Ronon back with you." 

I nod. "You got it."

_____________________________________________

I find Ronon. "Hey." 

He looks back at me. "Hey."

We just look out the window in silence for a while, it's not awkward but it is heavy. "Are you okay? You're not normally this quiet." 

I laugh. "Yeah, I'm just a little worried. And, I'm not completely sure that Kavanagh did this, something just doesn't feel right. He just seems too perfect for this." 

"Look, I'm sure we're going to be fine..." Before he can continue I glance at my watch.

"Oh my God! The meeting!" I grab Ronon's arm and drag him with me to the conference room with minimal complaints from the Runner. 

I stop outside the door. "Stay out here, for a second"

"Nice of you to join us." Caldwell says sarcastically.