Radek threw himself at the console, laying his P90 across the edge of it, his glasses sliding down his nose again. “I will be a moment,” he said, peering at the alien interface. There was no need to tell him to get on with it as fast as possible. Putting the pressure on Radek didn’t work the way it did with Rodney. All it would do would be fluster him and cause him to make a mistake.
For the moment there was no movement in the hall. John chinned his radio on. “Ronon?”
There was no reply. He’d like to take that as Ronon was busy. He would take it that way. For the moment.
“I cannot get it out,” Radek said. “Co s tím?” he said, his fingers flying over the board of the interface. “Sheppard, I have a problem.”
Footsteps in the hallway. Cadman sent a spray of bullets flying just at knee height, not really able to see what she was shooting at.
“Hold your fire!” It was Teyla’s voice shouting back. “John, it is us!”
Cadman looked at him questioningly. Prisoner or not? Up and up or at gunpoint?
“Hold on,” John said, and added for Cadman’s benefit, “she’d have said Colonel Sheppard if she were a prisoner.”
Cadman nodded. She was still learning the subtle things. “Ok.”
“Come on in,” John called.
Teyla hurried around the corner, Todd at her heels, a long bladed pike in his hands as he looked behind them.
“The power is fluctuating,” Radek said. “This ship is seriously damaged.”
“Good for Carter,” John said. “Now pull that ZPM.”
“I cannot! I told you.” John took a step toward him, and he could see what Radek meant immediately. Long, vinelike tendrils wrapped the ZPM, its glowing surface seamed with green pulsing cables. “I cannot get it out. It does not obey an extraction order.”
“What if you cut the cables?” John asked.
“Jen pøes moji mrtvolu,” Radek said fervently.
“You will blow up the ship momentarily,” Todd snapped, his coat flowing around him as he leaned over the screen. “You cannot pull it without turning it off unless you want to simply destroy us all.”
“Then turn it off,” John said. He looked around. “Teyla?” Surely a queen could tell it to disconnect.
“Let me see the interface,” she said, sliding in beside Radek. “Perhaps…” She closed her eyes, her fingers on the tactile pads.
Todd looked back toward the door. “We do not have long,” he said. “Sheppard, this was a trap for Steelflower as I thought. This is likely not the only ship of Queen Death’s. We must get off this ship before reinforcements arrive. She would have anticipated that our hive ship would fight if Steelflower were ambushed. It is only that your Carter attacked first.”
“Right,” John said. He keyed the radio again. “Ronon? What’s going on, buddy?”
Chapter Thirty-one
Tiger by the Tail
“Almost there,” Ronon said quietly into his radio. “I need silence, Sheppard.”
“Ok. Check in when you’re done.” Sheppard’s voice was worried. And why not, Jennifer thought. This was all crazy. Crazy dangerous. The world pitched around her for a second and then steadied.
“It should be just up here,” Ronon said. He glanced at her, his brow furrowed. “You stay behind me. Once I’ve dropped Rodney, I need you to sedate him to keep him out. With this thing set on stun Wraith don’t stay out long.”
“I’m ready,” Jennifer said. Her hypodermic was loaded, capped tightly in an inner jacket pocket. Even a Wraith would be out for a couple of hours with what was essentially enough anesthetic for major surgery. Rodney wouldn’t be able to give them a fight while they were removing him from the hive ship and getting him safely aboard the Hammond.
The world steadied. Cold sweat still stood out on her face, and Jennifer shivered. She was getting a grip. Her heart wasn’t pounding quite so fast. At least Ronon hadn’t noticed.
Ronon slid up almost against the door to the lab, listening. Jennifer, behind him, couldn’t hear anything, but apparently Ronon could because he smiled wolfishly. Here we go, it meant, and he looked almost happy as he activated the door, thundering through with a barrage of shots.
“Hey!” It might have been Rodney’s voice, Rodney’s voice utterly changed. She heard a shout, and then the shots ceased.
Jennifer peered around the door trying to see what had happened.
“Come in,” Ronon said. He sounded satisfied as he keyed the door closed behind her. “Got him. He was by himself.”
Rodney lay unconscious in the middle of the floor, one arm flung up over his face. Jennifer knelt beside him, rolling him carefully onto his back.
His hair was stark white but thicker than it had been, spiking up like an 80s rock star over a green seamed face, the sensory pits along the sides of his nose making his face look thinner and more pinched. His eyes were closed. The pulse at his neck was steady, his skin soft and a little oily under her hands. This was the first time she had touched him in two months, she thought. All the times she’d wanted to and touched empty air.
“He ok?” Ronon knelt down on the other side, carefully not touching Rodney.
“He’s just unconscious,” Jennifer said, nodding sharply. “Good job.” She reached in her jacket pocket and pulled out the hypodermic, carefully rolled up his left sleeve and injected it into the vein. “We should have at least an hour or two with this, but I can’t give him more.”
“It’s not going to take us an hour,” Ronon said. He snapped a bracelet with a radio transmitter around Rodney’s wrist. That would allow the Hammond to lock onto Rodney as easily as to them.
Once again the world wavered, and Jennifer clutched at the floor to keep from falling. Rodney’s face swam before her eyes.
“Jennifer?” Ronon’s voice was concerned.
Her vision darkened. What was this? This wasn’t nerves. This wasn’t a fear reaction. Jennifer opened her mouth but nothing came out. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t see.
“Jennifer?” Sharper now. She thought maybe Ronon had grabbed her shoulder.
And then the world went entirely dark.
“I cannot remove the ZPM,” Teyla said quietly, opening her eyes.
“You mean the ship won’t take your orders?” John said, his hair dripping with sweat as he cradled the P90 in his arms.
“I mean that it cannot be removed,” Teyla said shortly. “It has been completely integrated with the ship’s systems. I cannot imagine who could have done this.”
“I can,” Radek said grimly. “Rodney.”
John swore. He looked at Guide. “And if we pull the damn thing we’ll blow ourselves up?”
“Immediately,” Guide said. “Instantaneously.”
“Ok, not a plan.” John looked back and forth between Guide and Radek. “Can you set it to overload? That will take a while to build up, right?”
“It will,” Radek acknowledged. “And yes, it can be set to overload.”
“You will destroy the ship, Sheppard,” Guide said. “And all else who are too near.”
“It is what Steelflower would do,” Teyla said. “To deny it to Death in revenge for her treachery.”
Guide looked at her, and she felt his words as much as heard them in her mind. *You are Steelflower in truth.*
*Yes,* she said. *I am.*
“I will set it to overload,” Guide said, coming around her to stand at the terminal. “We will have four minutes from when I am finished.”
“Understood,” John said, keying his radio on. “Ronon? What’s your status? We need to get a move on.”