FIC: Devil Inside - Chapter 13

[x_erikah_x]

DEVIL INSIDE By ErikaHK

Title Devil Inside - Ch. 13/14

Word count: 1.170
Rating: PG
Characters: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Elizabeth Weir, Teyla Emmagan, Ronon Dex, Carson Beckett
Genre: Drama, Angst, H/C, Suspense, Gen
Disclaimer: Stargate and all related characters are the property of MGM Television Entertainment. Not done for profit, just for fun.

Summary: A mysterious entity takes over the bodies of the members of the Atlantis Expedition. Season 3 pre-Sunday. No spoilers.

Special thanks to my beta lauriel01!

Chapter 13

There were whispering somewhere nearby. John still couldn’t make out the words or who was speaking, but it got clearer every second as he slowly came back to life. He heard Elizabeth’s voice speaking, then Rodney right next to her, and Carson. He fought his way to the land of the conscious, trying hard to open his eyes. As he slowly regained his senses, memory flashes from the hunt and the combat with Teyla returned to his brain followed by the brief moment of awareness he had afterwards. He tried to move, but was overcome by weakness.

When his eyes finally snapped open he was overwhelmed by the presence of so many different senses washing over him. The voices, the beep and the hiss, the disinfectant, the light, the tube in his mouth, the tape on his face and even the sheet over his body. For a moment he lay there, considering himself lucky to be able to feel all that again.

Hearing their voices speaking in low tones by the end of his bed made him warm in a way he rarely felt before coming to Atlantis. Now that feeling was even becoming common to him. Feeling he was somewhere he belonged, with people that were more than his friends. They were his family. They weren’t even talking about him, but the fact that they chose to have a conversation at his bedside instead of the mess hall or someone’s office was all he needed to know that they really cared for him and he just lay there immobile and quiet, not only because he was unable to speak, but because he didn’t want to.

“We were finally able to get to the important part of the text, but the bad news is that we need to recharge the cage that was holding it and it takes time.” Rodney spoke in a very atypically low voice.

John was happy that he was not making any noise; he could now know how they were doing against that thing.

“How long?” Elizabeth asked.

“I have no idea. It may take several hours.”

“Rodney, we don’t have that many hours. Teyla is still deteriorating.” Carson’s statement concerned John. That thing was still inside her and now they had to fight against time.

“I know. Look, Radek was examining the cage last time we heard from him, maybe he has something.” Rodney said.

“We’ll call him and tell him to bring it here. Just figure how to make it work again.” Elizabeth whispered. It looked like they had a plan, just not the time to get it done.

“It doesn’t need to be full power, just enough to lock it down again and there are some hints on how to do this further on the text. It just needs to be translated.” It was Rodney again.

“All right, I want all translating teams working on that.”

That damn creature is still causing them trouble. It was doing something to Teyla and he couldn’t do anything to help. His sense of helplessness came back to him mixed with frustration and anger. It must have shown on the heart monitor, because soon Carson was in his line of sight staring at him.

“You should have made us aware that you were listening.” The Scot said.

Why? So you could keep me out of the loop. It’s just my body that is broken, not my mind.

“Don’t worry, John. We have all under control.” Elizabeth appeared right next to him.

Really? It didn’t sound like that to me. Fighting against time is not having things under control, Elizabeth!

“Just rest and next time you wake up, it will all be solved.” Carson gave his best bedside manner smile which pissed John off slightly. Being treated like a damn kid didn’t sit well with him.

Maybe you could sleep over the crisis, Carson. It certainly looks like you could use some.

Having a mental argument with his friends was way too strange for him, but it suited well for the moment. He felt better already. Not too much, but enough to decrease the beep frequency coming from the monitor. Even if he wasn’t injured there would be nothing he could do anyway. It was a Rodney type of problem. Maybe he would just follow Carson’s advice and skip over the stress of wanting to be in charge just for once. Away from those responsibilities. He was feeling increasingly tired anyway. He just nodded and gave in to his tiredness.

…

Rodney paced frantically from one group to another, overseeing their progress and working on his own project. The recharging of the cage was a little more complicated than he expected and even with all the time that Zelenka had spent working on it at the ruins, the proper settings hadn’t been discovered yet. The translation teams stopped complaining about rest and time constraints several hours ago when Carson came in saying that Teyla had little over twenty four hours before her body broke down under the stress. Now he also had Elizabeth’s help on the translations and Zelenka’s on deciphering the power outputs for the device.

He sat beside the Czech taking a sip from the tenth cup of coffee and examined the readings on his PC.

“We’re getting there, but it still needs to be refined.” Radek said.

“Definitely closer, but still not close enough.” Rodney replied.

The Czech cursed on his own language. “We can’t keep on like this!” He adjusted his glasses. “It will take forever to try to crack this by trying each and every possibility!”

“Oh, well, really? If you got any other way to figure it out, I’m all ears!” Rodney shouted in return.

“I’m not saying that, Rodney! I just hate random guesses.”

“Me too! But that’s all we can do unless those people come up with the right answer!” He waved at the teams working around them. It was frustrating having to rely on others to solve the puzzle when no one was actually able to work as fast or as well as he could. And it didn’t help his job when he was interrupted every five minutes because of their incompetence in coming up with an answer to their own problems. Radek only sighed to that remark.

After a period of silence Elizabeth called from her workbench. “Rodney, is this it?”

Rodney promptly directed his attention to her. Her laptop displayed a series of numbers followed by power measures. He scrolled through the data with a grin building on his face.

“Yes, yes this is it.” He carried her laptop to his work station without ever taking his eyes off the screen. He started typing the setting into the control of the naquadah generator to start the charge. It started emitting a low hum and the indicator lights on the bottom of the cage device started to blink. Rodney could hear the satisfied sighs from Radek and Elizabeth from behind him and sat back relieved.

…

TBC…

( Chapter 1 ) | ( Chapter 2 ) | ( Chapter 3 ) | ( Chapter 4 ) | ( Chapter 5 ) |

( Chapter 6 ) | ( Chapter 7 ) | ( Chapter 8 ) | ( Chapter 9 ) | ( Chapter 10 ) |

( Chapter 11 ) | ( Chapter 12 ) | ( Chapter 14 )