Home coming
Kavanagh stirs into consciousness extremely slowly. His head is throbbing with an intense pain, matched only by that in his left arm, which is definitely broken now. He’s in a darkened room. The air is cold and damp. The floor however is warmer and softer. Not smooth like a mattress but disjointed and uneven. He can’t place it. Can’t stay awake long enough to think about it. He blissfully lets the darkness overwhelm him again, taking the pain with it.
The next time he awakes, he manages to stay awake for long enough to figure out that the ‘floor’ is actually a mass of tangled, dead bodies. Despite the pain, he crawls away frantically, his glasses falling off in the process. He doesn’t even think about stopping to look for them. Once he’s cleared the pile, he doubles over and starts dry-heaving. His stomach is too empty to bring anything up but the retching continues until he passes out again.
It takes a while longer before he can move again. But slowly he crawls away into a little hole in the floor, sheltered by a ledge forming out of the rock face. It takes even longer before his memory comes back. Even then it’s only in pieces. David. The fights. Nick. The escape plan. He stays curled up in the tiny little hole for a dozen cycles of passing out and waking up to pain. Through the pain though, there’s one thought clear in his mind. One thing that makes waking up still worth it. ‘Nick will come for me’. He has no way to judge time but he thinks they must be close to putting the escape plan into action by now. He waits through several more cycles. It becoming like a chant in his head now. ‘Nick will come. He’d never leave without me. Nick will come. This will all be over soon. Nick will come.’
It must be weeks before he finally accepts that Nick isn’t coming. The plan must have gone horribly wrong. He can only think of one reason why Nick wouldn’t come for him. But that’s a thought he can’t accept and he banishes it from his mind. Instead focusing on his slowly increasing strength - he’s been rationing the few powerbars stashed in his pockets. Never before has he been so glad of his tendency to plan for the worst. Plus Nick must have added some of his in there too. He tries not to let the realisation reduce him to tears.
He knows he needs to leave, to try and find the gate. Getting out of there isn’t hard. The room isn’t guarded at all. The complex itself is pretty empty too, when there isn’t a fight on. Obviously the guards are far too arrogant about anyone’s ability to break out from the prison system. He wants to go look for Nick, and the others, but knows that’ll reduce the chance of him escaping successfully. Much better to just get back to Atlantis and let a fully trained team come through. It still hurts to leave behind his lover.
Outside the complex, the gate is easy to see in the distance. He works his way towards it, going as much in a straight line as possible. Thankfully the rest of the planet seems to be uninhabited. He sleeps during the day to escape the heat. The powerbars are all but finished but there are several plants containing berries he thinks should be edible. Not having much to lose anyway, he tries them. They’re bitter and don’t provide much nourishment but they don’t seem to do any harm either. He comes across a small stream and drinks greedily. He has nothing he can use to store the water so he drinks as much as possible.
It turns out that the ‘gate is further than it looks and he becomes increasingly more tired with passing day. His injuries slowing him down more and more. He doesn’t think his arm is ever going to be the same. The bones seem to have healed but fused back in a slightly odd position and he can’t get the arm fully straight. His head is throbbing as it has done ever since the attack. He vaguely remembers being repeatedly smashed with a wooden block. After a week or so of the days and nights on this planet he finally reaches the Stargate.
Only then does he realise that he has no idea what to do next. He doesn’t have any of his gear so no IDC. He curses himself, and the head injury for not considering that sooner. In a fit of rage he picks up the nearest rock and throws it at the stone ring as hard as possible. Which to be fair isn’t all that hard since he barely has the idea to lift it. It does give him an idea though. He gathers as many of the stones lying around the gate as possible, trying for the bigger ones but then just giving up and gathering any pebbles. It should still work, he thinks. He dials the address for Atlantis and throws in the first four stones in rapid sequence, knowing they’ll hit the shield. He waits a moment before throwing in another two. Another moment is followed by three more stones. Then one. He keeps going. Nine. Eight. Six. Three. Five.
Tapping out the sequence of his IDC.
Five. Eight. Nine. Seven.
He stops to gather more stones.
Three. Eight. Two. Three. Five.
“Come on McKay, Zelenka, someone, figure it out. This is simple enough even for you.” He mutters as he lets the 'gate shut down. Almost praying for a response.