She let the echoes of her own voice die away, then said: “In addition, it’s possible there may be non-human intruders in the city. Please be as vigilant as you can.”
With that, she closed the connection. “I take it there’s been no response from Apollo?”
“Not a word, Colonel. I’ve been sending out hails every fifteen minutes…” He gave her a small, helpless shrug. “So far, nothing.”
Carter nodded briskly. She’d have been alerted if Ellis had reported in, that was certain, but she’d still had to ask. Just to make sure that things were as bad as she thought they were. “Keep trying. Palmer, are you going to be okay up here on your own until the rest arrive?”
“Sure. Are you not going to be here?”
“I’ll be back shortly. There’s some things I need to do first. Oh, and one more thing… Now that it’s all just hit the fan, Andrew Fallon is probably going to be looking for me. If he asks, tell him I’m in the ZPM room.”
“Is that where you’ll be?”
“No. But tell him anyway.”
The lights in the infirmary were up very high, higher than normal by some considerable degree. The brightness struck Carter as soon as she came in, and her made wince. She still didn’t feel truly awake. A mug of furiously strong coffee was helping slightly in that regard, but she couldn’t shake the strange feeling that she was lagging behind the rest of the world by about a quarter of a second.
Keller looked up as she heard Carter come in. “Colonel,” she said, very quietly.
“Morning, Doctor.” Carter kept her voice at the same level. She had been warned to do so before she’d arrived. “I think this just about counts as morning, doesn’t it?”
“Only just.” Keller got up. “If you’re looking for Teyla and Zelenka, I stashed them in the lab next door.”
“Were they okay?”
“I checked them out and they seem fine. Just a little shaken up.”
Carter gestured over to a screened-off area. “Is Cassidy in there?”
“Yeah. I gave her a sedative. She was in quite a state when they brought her in, poor kid.” Keller hugged herself nervously. “Some of the stuff she was saying… Jesus.”
“Can I talk to her?”
“I’d rather you didn’t.” Keller glanced back at the screened-off area. “Colonel, is what they were saying true? Teyla and Zelenka?”
“I have no idea. All I know is that we’ve lost an entire section of pier, and that Fallon’s going to have my hide.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’ll let you know when I’ve woken up. In the meantime, take care of Cassidy.”
“I will. She’s sleeping okay at the moment, as long as I leave the lights on full. If I try to lower them, well…” She sighed. “Let’s just say it doesn’t matter how much sedative I give her.”
Carter thanked her, then went into the adjacent lab. Teyla Emmagan was there, pacing in the small space. Zelenka was busying himself with a data terminal. He looked up as she came in. “Hello Colonel.”
“Hi Radek, Teyla. How are you both doing?”
“Physically, we are both well,” Teyla replied. She was practically bouncing with nervous energy. “Colonel, you need to post guards around the affected area.”
“I already have.” Carter had spent the journey down to the infirmary on her headset. “I’ve got a full marine squad on their way, and more standing by if needs be. Don’t worry, nothing’s going to get in or out of there until we give the word.”
Teyla looked unconvinced. “From what I saw, leaving is not their intention.”
“Blast doors,” said Zelenka helpfully. “I’d not seen them before, but they looked thick, heavily armored. They shut the corridor off just before the lights went out.”
“Okay…” Carter found a seat, a high lab stool, and perched on it. “Teyla, exactly what happened down there? You said you were attacked?”
“That is correct. Radek and I had both decided separately to observe Angelus, and we met in the gallery. While I was there, I noticed that the marines on guard were acting in a strange way.”
“They’d both left their post when I arrived,” Zelenka cut in. “Teyla saw them go and come back. But then that poor girl screamed…”
“Cassidy?”
“That is correct,” said Teyla. She had a haunted look to her now, remembering. “We found the guards trying to force her back into the lab. She was terrified of something there, and would not return. When we intervened, the marines turned on us. I shot Lieutenant DeSalle.”
Carter stared at her. “You shot him?”
“In the head. However, he did not seem unduly concerned.”
Zelenka stood up. “Colonel, I know that part sounds hard to believe. But it happened right next to me. DeSalle should have been dead before he hit the ground, but he was acting as if nothing had happened. That was when the blast doors closed and all the lights went out.”
Before Carter could answer, her headset crackled. “Colonel Carter, this is MacReady.”
Major MacReady was leading the marine squad she had sent down to observe the dark section. “Good to hear from you, Major. What can you tell me?”
“I’ve had my people do a full sweep. Looks like every corridor in is blocked by armored doors — tried to run a bypass on a set of ’em, but got nothing. And the lights are out to a perimeter roughly ten meters outside the doors in all directions. Colonel, that section of pier is nailed shut like a cheap coffin.”
“Thanks, Major. We’ll need each set of blast doors guarded, two marines per. Stay in constant contact — if anyone tries to go in or come out, I want to know about it.” She caught a glimpse of Teyla’s expression. “Oh, and Major?”
“Yeah?”
“There’s a possibility that there could be non-humans inside that area, masquerading as our people. Be careful — normal weapons fire might not bring them down.”
“Understood. MacReady out.” The man’s tone of voice hadn’t changed, as though bullet-proof shapeshifters was something he dealt with on a daily basis. Carter couldn’t help but allow herself a wry smile at the thought of that.
“Looks like you were right about the blast doors,” she told Zelenka. “They’ve come down in all the access corridors to the lab. Could Angelus have activated some kind of security protocol?”
“It’s possible. He is an Ancient, after all. If anyone could, it would be him.”
“If you found what he’d done, could you undo it?”
“Again, it’s possible. I’d need to track down the exact protocol he’d used first. That might take some time.”
She took a sip of her coffee, but it was getting cold. “Get right on it. Oh, and before you get set up, can you find someone on your team to get down there with some cutting equipment? If the high-tech approach doesn’t work, we’ll need some brute force instead.”
“Absolutely. Norris knows how to use a oxy-acetylene torch. I’ll call him and Bennings up when I get to the ZPM lab.”
“Fine, I’ll see you there later…” Something behind him had caught Carter’s eye. She stepped aside as he went for the door, not taking her eyes off it. Suddenly, half the pieces in her mystery folder had just arranged themselves into new and terrible configurations.
“Teyla, can you go up to my office and meet me there? I need your help with something.”
“Very well.”
“Actually, can you wait ten minutes? I need to check on something first, but I don’t want Fallon to catch you up there without me around. He’s probably on the warpath right about now.”
Teyla raised an eyebrow. “I am not afraid of Mr Fallon.”
“Neither am I. But I’m afraid for him.” She gave the Athosian a brief smile. “I’ll see you up there.”
“Very well.” With a final, slightly puzzled look, Teyla followed Zelenka out of the door.
When she had gone, Carter walked slowly up to what she had seen; a row of empty sample tubes, racked for storage above one of the lab’s benches.