"Somebody want to give a visual description for those of us trying to follow along at home?"
Before Carson could suggest that Rodney stick his radio somewhere uncomfortable, Sheppard responded. "Relax, Rodney, you were right. A section of the reef must have broken away when the city rose, probably burying the jumpers."
"Yes, gratifying, but hardly a surprise." Was that muted, rhythmic sound actually Rodney's foot tapping? "Obviously, the accumulated debris that slid off the shield included some kind of manufactured material which interfered with the life pod signals. Check. Next. Have you isolated the location of the life signs? According to what I'm seeing from up here, you should be within visual range."
Ahead of them was an overhang. Beneath, a smaller section of coral had collapsed even more recently, leaving behind a scar that gleamed chalk-white under their lights. "Colonel," Carson said.
"I see it "
"What?" Rodney demanded. "What do you see?"
Beside Carson, Radek was pointing to the HUD. "There."
"Aye." While Carson had not expected to find the jumpers parked neatly on the seafloor, dusted with a bit of rubble from the undersea avalanche, neither had he expected to encounter what the HUD was now telling them. The Ancient craft were actually embedded inside the base of the coral wall.
"For the love of God, what?" Rodney barked.
"You were wrong," Radek replied with barely concealed delight. "Dr. Weir was correct "
The reply was immediate and indignant. "How could I be wrong when I don't even know you're seeing?"
"Calm down, Rodney," Elizabeth admonished. "Colonel, what is it, exactly?"
"I've got a good view of two of the ships from here." Sheppard executed a graceful about-face, bringing Jumper One nose to nose with the section of wall that had most recently broken away. A pair of large, circular protrusions jutted out. "First jumper's facing this way, but the windshield is shattered."
"What the hell are those things crawling around inside?" came a voice that Carson recognized as that of Sergeant Alderman. He'd certainly heard enough of the Marine's Southern twang while treating him for a couple of broken fingers the month before. "The giant bugs with the long feelers?"
"Don't know, but if we can catch a few, this might turn into the best dinner of the whole expedition. Anybody bring a lobster cracker?"
"Uh…well, we've got pliers, sir."
"Good enough for me "
"If you can tear yourselves away from the thought of food for a moment, please?" Rodney sounded as though he were about three breaths away from losing what passed for his temper.
"Oh, the irony of that remark," Radek muttered.
"This is a cheap payback, isn't it?" Rodney snapped a reply. "I refuse to accept that I was in error without a detailed explanation."
Carson smiled and shifted Jumper Three into position to examine the second protrusion. From what he could see, the vessel was facing away from him, which made it impossible to get a glimpse inside.
"I do not think the hatch will open easily," Radek reported-a remark that Carson considered incredibly understated, even for the Czech.
"This is insane. Elizabeth," Rodney whined. "Order them to tell me what's going on down there!"
"Gentlemen, please, for my sake if not for Rodney's, exactly what are you seeing?"
"The jumpers aren't buried under rubble," Sheppard replied. "They're entombed."
"You mean covered?" Rodney corrected.
"What the Colonel means, Rodney," Carson explained, "is that the wreckage forms part of the reef's structure. The recent avalanche did expose the jumpers, but it wasn't the rising of Atlantis that concealed them in the first place. According to the readings on my HUD, the interior of the craft I'm looking at is naught but a scattering of Ancient materials completely cemented together with coral rock."
"Same over here," Sheppard confirmed. "Although we could probably dig past the busted windshield, ten thousand years adds up to a lot of growth. We could maybe hit it with a few small charges of C-4, but a blast strong enough to dislodge that stuff wouldn't do your spare parts any favors"
"All right, that's that. Moving on-life signs, people," Rodney urged. "The jumper you're looking for should be about ten meters to your left."
"Port."
"What?"
"At sea, left is port."
"Oh, is it, Sailor Sheppard?"
"Hey! To an Air Force man those are fighting words."
"John, Rodney-behave." Dr. Weir's voice was gently chiding.
Their sniping faded into the background, and Carson concentrated on edging his jumper down the newly scarred section of the reef wall. His lights suddenly caught another protrusion. This time the distinctive pattern of a jumper hull was visible. "I've found the third wreck," he announced. "But given its condition, it can't be where our life signs are hiding"
Radek blinked and sat forward, examining the wreckage first through the windshield and then the HUD. "I did not think that possible."
"Man, look at that, will ya?" Stackhouse added from behind.
"The hull's been crushed," Carson informed his radio audience. He backed his jumper out from beneath the overhang so that he could see upwards. "It would seem as though something fell on it…oh." That explained it.
"What?" Rodney's voice rose in pitch. "Now is not the time to go monosyllabic "
"You'd be pretty stunned too if you could see this," Sheppard told him, angling Jumper One up beside Jumper Three to provide better light.
Stackhouse uttered an expletive. "Guess I should've known that a city as big as Atlantis would need awfully big moorings, but damn."
A simple, monstrously imposing structure towered over them at an alarming angle. Five stories high at least, Carson estimated, and that was only as far as he could see in the gloom. It had to be part of the apparatus that had anchored Atlantis to the seafloor, and the third jumper appeared to have taken the brunt of its fall in the rockslide.
Over the radio, someone whistled the opening notes to the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
"Sheppard, I know that's you," Rodney accused. "Either start giving me some useful descriptions of what you're seeing or-"
"It's a monolith, Rodney, all right? It's huge and, according to my HUD, has a density that's off the charts. Apparently it beat the hell out of one of the jumpers when it slipped. Radek's right. There's no way anything's alive in there."
"So you've said, but that doesn't change the fact that the life signs are located at the exact position of this supposedly destroyed jumper."
"There's nothing supposed about it, Rodney," Carson put in. "The thing's been flattened to the thickness of a hubcap."
"Perhaps we have an instrumentation problem?" Radek wondered.
"The equipment is functioning perfectly," Rodney insisted. "I still have two readings, clear as a bell but fading, and they're right on top of you."
"Not on top of," Sheppard said suddenly, swinging his craft around. "Underneath."
It took a moment for Carson to grasp what the Colonel meant, but when the lights from Jumper One's motion shifted the angle of the shadows, he spotted the fourth vessel. "The last ship is set slightly back from and below the crushed one, at the very bottom of the reef," he explained, briefly taking pity on Rodney's lack of visual information. "That's got to be where your life signs are originating."
"All right, good, excellent" It was hard to tell what was faster, exasperated McKay-speak or exhilarated McKay-speak. "Let's get that shield set up. Radek, you're confident on the recalibration procedure, right?"
"Yes, mother," Radek replied, twisting to access the controls behind his seat. "Jumpers in, water out."
"It's not that simple. You're already displacing a few tons of water, so you don't want to unbalance the mooring any more than necessary. The last thing we need is that block to shift and trigger another rockslide while you're all out there dealing with the life pods."