"Desperately trying to perform first aid on several badly injured Athosians," Carson put in for good measure.
The bizarre noise from the Asgard sounded louder this time. John's gaze slid to Caldwell. The older man looked slightly exasperated at his crewmember's stubbornness. "It must be nice to be so sure of yourself," he grumbled at Hermiod. In spite of the tension, John had to fight to keep a knowing smile off his face. When it came to brilliant and socially inept colleagues, he could definitely relate.
"Sir," the communications officer interrupted from across the bridge. "We have a call from Jumper Three"
"Teyla?" John took an involuntary step forward, his throat suddenly tight. He hadn't let himself think too hard about her odds of survival until now, recognizing that it would have wrecked his focus. But if there was anything to know, one way or the other, he needed to know it.
"It's Corletti, sir," came the relatively static-free response through the shipboard speakers. "Teyla's outside with Halling. She'll be here in a minute."
Thank God.
"What's your status, Lieutenant?" Caldwell requested.
"Sir, it's just after dawn, so we've finally got some light to work with. Sorry about not checking in before now, but we had a few problems for a while in there. The storm over the mountains is still looking ugly, kinda hurricane-like. It's heading away from us, though. Down here at the main camp, it's about eighty percent cloud cover, wind gusts of about forty knots, but I don't know how long our luck's going to hold on that count. The campsite itself is a full-blown disaster area. A mountain more or less fell on half of it, and the rest-most of the tents were shredded by last night's winds."
"Casualties?" John asked.
"We've made contact with the Athosians on the east side of the river, and I'm about to start ferrying them up to join Dr. Anane's group in the rocks on the west side. So far, we have several with broken limbs, just about everyone with lacerations and contusions, some severe, and a couple Teyla dug out who I'm pretty sure inhaled some mud."
Beside him, Beckett visibly stiffened. "What about Kwesi's group?" he asked.
"From what we've been able to ascertain by shouting across the river, it's about the same. I'll be over there to confirm that as soon we get everyone on board." John could hear movement in the background as Corletti spoke. "Stragglers are making their way here now that the weather is clearer. A separate landslide has blocked the path to the lakeside camp. Halling has gone downriver a ways to look for two people who fell into the water last night. We had them on the life signs detector for a while, but some of our subsystems are on the blink. There's no way I can risk flying back to Atlantis, even if the weather holds. Once we get everyone together here I'll attempt to evacuate the lakeside camp."
"Negative to that, Lieutenant," Caldwell replied. "It's too risky if the jumper is disabled."
"I understand your reluctance, Colonel Caldwell." Teyla's voice joined the conversation, allowing John to finally reassure himself that she was all right. "However, I do not see that we have much choice."
"From where I'm standing, I think staying put is a legitimate option."
"Hey, Teyla," John put in, cursing the screwy rank structure of the expedition and trying not to notice Caldwell's sharp look. This was Caldwell's ship, but the jumper and its crew were Atlantis's responsibility-John's responsibility. He'd deal with any ruffled feathers later. "How many people are in the hunting parties?"
"It is difficult to say," Teyla answered. "Colonel, please. If we have any hope of rescue, we will have a better chance if everyone is together. If a rescue is not possible, then nothing will be lost if we die in the attempt. And we will be together at the end, which is important to us all."
"Listen, sirs." Corletti's voice returned. "If nobody can come get us, we'll understand. But we'd like to know."
Caldwell was silent for a moment, and John suspected his resolve was beginning to crack. For all his pragmatism, the man clearly wanted to save as many people as possible, just as they all did.
"Colonel, I need to get to that camp," Carson put in, his tone calm but insistent. "There are injuries there that need treatment sooner rather than later, and after all I…" He didn't finish the sentence, but John could tell he was feeling some guilt, however misplaced, over what was happening.
At Caldwell's inquisitive glance, Hermiod muttered about having to reassemble something unpronounceable before the Daedalus would be airworthy. Before John could ask for clarification, the Asgard turned toward the door, speaking as he went. "We can be ready for lift-off in two hours, but I will require an additional hour after that to reinstall the necessary components to beam anyone aboard."
"Teyla, Corletti, stand by," John called. "Help's on the way."
"Be aware that this will also result in a delay in rebuilding the hyperdrive," the Asgard added matter-of-factly, "which may result in the destruction of this ship."
When Hermiod had stalked off the bridge — who knew little gray aliens could stalk? — Carson remarked, "And I thought Rodney was a mite tetchy to work with."
"You have no idea," said Caldwell under his breath. He turned to John. "I just hope for everyone's sakes that by the time we get back, you'll have bought us some time with another ZPM."
Me, too, John didn't reply.
In Atlantis's main lab, Rodney pushed his chair back and blinked rapidly to restore some moisture to his still-dry eyes. "That confirms it, then."
Glancing up from his computer, Radek concluded, "If we can obtain four charged ZPMs, then, purely from a power standpoint, we could fire Atlantis's main engines." He held up a warning finger. "But that does not necessarily mean that all systems will be operational."
Coffee cup in hand, Elizabeth arrived ahead of a train of technicians, engineers and assorted military personnel. Nodding a greeting to Radek, she said, "Rodney, are we ready for the briefing?"
"That would be exactly why I called this meeting," Rodney answered Radek, standing from the chair and giving Elizabeth a smile. "I can now say with a high degree of certainty that Atlas did not test his exogenesis machine on Polrusso."
"Then what would account for the interruption in the planet's terraforming?"
"It wasn't interrupted. It completed the process of water creation roughly two hundred years ago and is now inactive. With no Ancients around to shut it down, it's just idling."
Atlantis's leader frowned. "You mean someone simply needs to hit the off button?"
"Removing the ZPMs from the matrix would have the same effect. Which brings us to Atlas's machine, which I am now certain is still somewhere on Polrusso, possibly in one of the smaller labs where the ZPMs are located. Fortunately, when tracking the machine that's active on this planet, I had the foresight to analyze the component materials. It's a unique composite structure, so it shouldn't be too difficult to locate that same structure on Polrusso once we upload the data into a scanner."
"Sounds very promising" Elizabeth looked as pleased as Rodney felt. And with good reason. If he was right, and there was no reason to think otherwise, in a short while they should have acquired an exogenesis machine to save their planet, sufficient ZPMs to power the Starship Atlantis, taken out a hive ship, and made another planet full of surprisingly pleasant people very happy indeed. Not a bad day's work.
The new arrivals had managed to squeeze inside the relatively confined room, a fact that would normally have made Rodney edgy, but he was not about to let a little claustrophobia interfere with his mood. Explaining to them what he had in mind, he emphasized the need to bring Atlantis up to space-faring standards. "The entire city needs to be shipshape, or space-shape, whatever term you prefer. I want everything checked and rechecked: flight and life support systems, inertial dampeners, navigation systems, star charts-"