Title - Cold Comfort (2/6)
Sheppard groaned and rolled onto his side. His headache had gone up a notch and it was making it difficult to get any sleep. Hearing whispers, he opened his eyes. The kids from the ward were sitting on the floor outside his room and watching him. He edged up onto his elbow. “Hey.”
“You’re kinda old to be in here,” one of the girls said. She looked about six or seven, maybe even younger. Her cheeks were flushed and there was a red rash covering both her arms.
“I know.”
“Where are you from?” Another kid asked.
“I’m kinda tired. Was thinking of getting some sleep.”
They didn’t move.
He tried again. “Maybe you should go back to your beds.”
“Is it true? Are you a soldier?” A boy asked, getting up and walking into the room. “Is that your weapon?”
“Where?” asked another, joining his side.
“Up there. There’s some sort of weapon.”
“Now,” Sheppard said as he sat up. “That’s not for kids.”
“Can you show us how it works?”
“No.”
“But you can help us.”
He rubbed the bridge of his nose and hooked his legs over the edge of the bed. “Help with what?”
One of the girls shuffled forward. “The ghost.”
The nurse had mentioned that the kids were having delusions. But it wasn’t often than people shared the same delusion. Was it?
“It appears all the time. It’s a mechanical man.”
“There aren’t any ghosts here,” he said.
“Yes there are. But we can’t understand what it says.”
Sheppard hopped off the bed and started to herd them away from his room. “Okay. Well if you see him then let me know. Until then, I’m going to sleep.”
0000
McKay lay back on his bed and groaned. “Well, my back’s going to ache in the morning.”
Teyla shot him one of those looks that meant he was being ungrateful. He didn’t care. For once, he’d like to stay on a world that understood the importance of a firm, supportive mattress.
“Stop being a jerk,” Ronon said, testing his own bed.
“Where did you learn that word?” he asked.
“Sheppard.”
“Nice. Speaking of which, I wonder how he’s getting on up there. Do you think he’s playing pat a cake with the kids yet?”
He waved off their confused looks and made a mental note that jokes like that didn’t work with people who had no idea what Pat a Cake was.
“I am sure he is fine,” Teyla said. But then she met his gaze. “Do you think we should check in on him?”
“And interrupt all that braiding of hair?” McKay smiled.
Ronon said, “He’s probably resting. Wasn’t looking too good when we left him.”
“Hmmm. He was looking a little green. He’s probably praying to the porcelain gods-oh forget it,” he said, when Teyla and Ronon gave him blank expressions.
“Perhaps you should stop using earth terminology.”
“Maybe Teyla, you should learn some.”
“It’s okay,” Ronon said. “Don’t know what either of them are saying most of the time. Just smile and nod.”
“Exactly,” McKay said. “Just pretend.” He sat up and reached for his scanner. “Are you sure we can’t just go and have a poke around? There’s an interesting reading coming from two floors up.”
“The doctor was quite clear that we must stay down here. We cannot risk contracting the disease.”
“Teyla, we got the all clear.”
“Yes, but we still do not know if prolonged exposure could make us sick. And I will not risk that.”
“Come on. We were hanging around Sheppard all day.”
“Just wait until everyone has left. You can check it out tomorrow,” Ronon said.
0000
Sheppard was awake even before whoever had snuck in, started shaking his arm. He was conditioned to sleep lightly, even when he desperately needed the rest. He turned his head and one of the older kids was staring at him with wide eyes. In the ward beyond he could hear the kids screaming.
With some effort, he got to his feet. “What’s wrong?” he asked, reaching up for his p-90.
“It’s back!” the kid said. “The ghost! You have to fight it!”
Sheppard dropped his hand to his side. “What’s your name?”
“Desla,” she said. “Come on!”
“Desla-“ He was going to say that there was no such thing as a ghost, but then he thought about how ridiculous that statement was after what he had seen and experienced over the years.
“Please!”
He followed her out into the corridor. None of the nurses had come to the kid’s aid despite their screams, but then the doctor had warned him that they had been suffering from some vivid hallucinations, maybe they’d decided not to indulge them. If he went in there and assured them that everything was okay, maybe they’d be able to get some sleep.
Desla hid behind him as he opened the door to their ward. The other kids were on the other side of the room, hiding under one of the beds.
Sheppard scanned the room. He couldn’t see anyone or anything. The lights had been lowered slightly and there were a few dark corners that he made a show of checking out.
When he was sure that it was clear, he said. “There’s nothing here.”
“It was here,” one of the kids said, crawling out from under the bed.
“Where?”
“Where you’re standing,” she countered.
He didn’t know what else to tell them. He’d never really been a ‘kid’ person. Sure, he could pull funny faces and smile in the right places, but that didn’t mean he was comfortable with it. On the few occasions that he’d been left holding Torren he’d struggled with what he was supposed to be saying and doing with the kid.
Maybe they just needed reassuring. “I’m right across the hall. Nothing’s going to happen to you while I’m there.”
“You don’t believe us!”
“He thinks we’re lying, just like the doctor!”
Sheppard rubbed at his head. He was feeling crappy and now he’d left his bed, he was realising how much he needed it.
“Can you stay here?”
There was a chair by the door. Sheppard sighed and pulled it into the middle of the room. “I’ll stay for a bit. Okay?”
0000
Teyla opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling. Usually, she could sleep while McKay tapped away at his tablet or laptop or fiddled with whatever trinket he had bought a long to stem the boredom, but tonight the incessant light from his scanner was keeping her awake.
“Rodney,” she said, moving up onto her elbow.
McKay’s face was illuminated in the darkness. “The screen’s dimmed.”
“Not enough,” Teyla said. “Perhaps you can wait until the morning to do whatever it is that you are doing.”
McKay didn’t get the hint. Instead, he pushed off the bed and thrust the scanner under her nose. “Look! There it is again!”
Teyla looked at the screen. She was not entirely sure what she was supposed to be looking at.
“It’s an energy signal. Weak, but it keeps spiking,” he said, sitting on the edge of her bed and forcing her to shift back against the wall. “Whatever it is, it’s located on the floor above Sheppard.”
“What do you think it is?”
“Some sort of generator? A power cell of some kind?” He sighed. “I don’t know and it’s annoying me that I can’t just take a peek.”
“No, Rodney.”
“Oh come on! It’s just upstairs. I’ll be up and out in no time. I just want to see what it is.”
“You will have your chance tomorrow.”
“But I can’t sleep. Aren’t you intrigued?”
“I am tired.”
He stood up and stabbed a finger at the scanner. “Fine. I’ll leave it. But I want to take a look at first light.”
Teyla turned her back to him and closed her eyes. She heard McKay shuffle into his own bed and then his fingers tapping over this tablet.
0000
His chin dipped onto his chest and Sheppard snapped awake again. The kids had settled down and were now sleeping. He inched out of the chair. As he walked towards the door, he swiped at his forehead and fanned his t-shirt out in an attempt to cool down. Sweat prickled his arms and neck and he was starting to regret not taking that change of clothes.
He turned to check on the kids one more time and then saw it. Or rather him. An old man with white wispy hair was stood in the corner of the room. Sheppard took a step forward. The man flickered in and out. When he spoke, it was distorted, which would explain why the kids had mistaken it for robot-like. He’d seen something like this before. It was a hologram. A malfunctioning hologram at that.
He waved his hands. The man continued on a loop and didn’t react to him.
And then one of the kid’s screamed, which started a chain reaction that made Sheppard cover his ears. Loud noises, screaming, waking suddenly… his body was conditioned to react immediately. It was all part of his training. But today, the surge of adrenaline gave him palpitations and vertigo.
“It’s okay!” he said, walking over to the hologram.
He passed one bed and a little boy grabbed his arm. “Don’t go over there! “
He carefully removed his hand. “It’s okay,” he said, walking over and waving his hands through the image. “It’s a hologram. It’s not real.”
The screaming and shouting died to a few whispers and murmurs. “What’s a hologram?”
“It’s a projected image,” Sheppard said. “It’s not really here.”
He crouched down next to the hologram and could see the sensor on the floor. On the wall there was a panel, which he prised open with his knife. It popped and clanged onto the floor. He could see the problem straight away. A lead had become disconnected. He pushed it home and the hologram stopped flickering and remained steady. When it spoke this time, Sheppard could understand what he was saying.
“Power cells fading. Power at two percent. Failure of power catastrophic. Lockdown to commence. Warning. Power cells fading. Power at two per cent. Failure of power catastrophic. Lockdown to commence. Warning-“ and it continued on a loop.
Crap. That didn’t sound good.
Sheppard tapped his comm.. “McKay?”
“I’m here.”
“That was quick.”
“I can’t sleep. Why are you up?”
“I can’t sleep,” Sheppard said. “Look, there’s some sort of hologram up here. It’s repeating the same warning that the power cells are fading, failure catastrophic, lock down to commence. You reading anything?”
“I knew it.”
“Knew what?”
“That something was going on.”
“Then why the hell don’t I know about this?”
“I knew about it, I didn’t know what it meant. I wanted to check it out but Teyla and Ronon wouldn’t let me.”
“Well, it needs checking out now. You got a fix on these power cells?”
“Level above you. Give me a minute and I’ll head up to you.”
Just as McKay had finished that sentence, the hologram announced that power had failed, the hologram disappeared and an alarm blared overhead.
“What’s that?” McKay shouted.
Sheppard ran out into the hall and watched as metal shutters came down over the windows. The rest of the facility grunted and groaned as doors closed all around them and sealed off the exits. The lights dimmed and after a few minutes the alarm died down.
The doctor, Nia and another man ran towards him, all asking at once, what was happening.
Sheppard held out his hand. “I don’t know.”
“I’ll check on the children,” the doctor said, disappearing through to the ward.
“McKay?”
“We’ve been sealed into our room. I’m not sure how much of the facility is in lockdown but I’m assuming from what we heard that it’s extensive. Any luck your end?”
“Hang on,” Sheppard said. He jogged to the end of the corridor. A metal door blocked the exit to the stairwell. The only way out. “We’re sealed in too.”
“I need to get to where that energy signature originated. But-“
“You can’t do anything from there.”
“We’re trying to get out. I don’t know how long that’s going to take. There doesn’t seem to be any power down here.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll see what my options are here. Keep the comms open.”
Back in the ward, the doctors and nurses were attempting to calm down the kids. Some were crying, others looked intrigued, and a few fired questions at him as he entered.
Sheppard grabbed the doctor and another guy who he hadn’t met before, that introduced himself as Solan.
“What’s going on?” the doctor asked.
“There’s been a power failure. I’ve got a guy downstairs, who should be able to fix it, but in the meantime we need to get upstairs and check it out.”
Solan nodded. “Okay. But everything is sealed shut. How can we move between the floors? There is only one stairwell that leads up and we were unable to open that door before all of this,” he said, waving his hands around.
“I’ve got a solution for that,” Sheppard said, walking into his room.
0000
“You’re going to blow a hole through the door? A door that is directly under the obviously temperamental and potentially unstable power cells.”
“Just a little one,” Sheppard answered.
McKay leaned against the wall and watched as Ronon tried to prise the door to their room open. It hadn’t worked the first time. He didn’t see how it was going to work the tenth time.
“I can wedge C4 into the lock. The door will blow off at the hinges.”
“And what if it doesn’t? What if you damage whatever’s up there before I can get to it?”
“I’m not going to do that.”
“Are you sure these doors aren’t blast doors?”
“Even blast doors have their limits and this one’s pretty rusted.”
“Sheppard.”
“Rodney.”
“Fine. But it if doesn’t work on your first attempt, that’s assuming you don’t blow us all up, can you wait until we’re out of here?”
There was hesitation before he spoke. “Sure.”
Teyla started to wave him over. “Rodney, Ronon has managed to inch the door open. We could use your assistance.”
“Sounds like you’re needed. I’ll check in with you in a bit.”
0000
The C4 made easy work of the door. It blew out into the stairwell and once the smoke had cleared he could make out a catwalk above them which appeared to have open doors on either side. Sheppard switched the flashlight on his p-90 and started up the stairs.
He pulled his LSD out of his vest.
“What’s that?”
Sheppard looked up at the doctor. “It’s a life signs detector.”
The doctor’s eyes lit up. “May I take a look?”
Sheppard handed it over.
“It’s not working,” the doctor said, as Solan peered over his shoulder.
Sheppard took it back. “It’s calibrated so that I’m the only one that can use it.”
As far as he knew he could trust these people, but he didn’t want to take the chance that they’d take this opportunity to rob him.
There were no blinking dots, but it didn’t mean that there wasn’t anything up there. They’d encountered a race a few missions ago where the people hadn’t shown up. McKay seemed to think that the ancients catalogued species as they came across them and then updated their systems so that they could pick them up on the LSD. If there was something up there, then it was likely it wasn’t going to be human.
“What do you know about this place?”
Solan turned to the doctor and back to Sheppard. “As much as you do. It was abandoned when we arrived.”
“It was just open?”
“Yes..”
“And there was power?”
“Yes,” the doctor said.
“You’ve never come across any…. bodies or-“
The doctor shook his head. “No, no. Nothing like that. Why? Do you believe that there is something up there?”
“I don’t know. But I’ve learned to err on the probably-something-lurking-up-there side of caution.”
Solan took a steadying breath.
“Just stay behind me and if I say run, then get the hell out.” He started up the stairs and then stopped. “There’s probably nothing up there.”
He climbed the stairs slowly, switching his aim between the two entrances. His companions were breathing heavily. He could hear Solan mumbling something to the doctor, but he wasn’t willing to lose focus just to soothe his nerves again.
As he reached the catwalk, sweat dripped from his nose. In the commotion, he’d forgotten just how crappy he’d been feeling. He pushed the fever, the nausea and any other discomfort he was feeling to the back of his mind and edged forward. Now he was on the catwalk, he could see that only one of the doors was open. The other was firmly shut. He just hoped that the open door was the one that they wanted.
The room was expansive. Above, there were more catwalks with cells leading off them. In front of them were various work stations and panels. Beyond that, there was a circular dais; at its centre was some sort of device that stretched up to the ceiling.
“I had no idea,” the doctor said.
His voice echoed. Sheppard threw an irritated look over his shoulder. “Keep quiet. I’m going to make sure the area’s secure.” Seeing that Solan and the doctor were standing there awkwardly, he reached into his boot and unclipped the gun that he’d hidden there. He passed it to the doctor because he looked less freaked out than the other guy. “Safety’s off. Just point and shoot. Hopefully you won’t need it, but just in case.”
He never liked handing civilians weapons, but he didn’t have any back up. He gave the doctor a quick demonstration and when he was satisfied that he wasn’t going to blow his foot off he set out to secure the area.
He took a ladder up to the catwalk, knowing it would be the best place to get an overall view of the room. The cells checked out empty on both sides. There was nothing lurking between the equipment waiting to jump out. He dropped down on the other side of the room realising that this was the extent of the top floor. He was making his way back to Solan and the doctor when he saw the pods.
He counted ten. Behind them was something, or someone; he wasn’t sure. The glass was fogged up. For the moment, there appeared to be blinking lights on each of the external panels, which he hoped meant that whatever they were, were contained for now.
“Clear,” he shouted, walking up the dais and allowing his p-90 to dangle from his vest.
Solan and the doctor hurried over.
“Doc, I need you to keep an eye on those pods over there.”
The doctor’s eyebrows shot up. “Pods?”
“Just watch them. I’m not asking you to go over there. Okay?”
The doctor turned and raised the gun towards them.
Sheppard tapped his comms. “McKay?”
part 3 http://obsessed1o1.livejournal.com/102154.html#cutid1