Radek shrugged. "Perhaps a very large Petri dish?"
"Grab every power cell you can lay your hands on," Rodney barked at Lome and the other Marines who had followed them into the bay. "Load them all into Jumper One. We're going to need all the juice we can get."
John lowered Rodney's pack, strode inside and up to the cockpit, and initiated startup procedures without even sitting down. "So we need to fly Atlas's exogenesis machine into the trench and plant it inside one of those vents in the planet's crust?" he asked, making sure he had the big picture. The details he could pick up on the way.
"Preferably without boiling whoever does the inserting," replied Rodney. John glanced back to see him standing outside the hatch, staring at Radek. "Those vents are putting out a lot more heat than your average Jacuzzi."
Radek looked up. "Then, of course, there are the activated nanites-"
"And the possible consequences of interacting with a time differential."
Right, couldn't forget that. Because he'd had so much fun during their last adventure with time dilation.
"Somebody's going to have to lean out the hatch to drop the machine," Rodney continued. "It's going to be a bit of a high-wire act."
"I will do it," Teyla said without a moment's hesitation, earning John's respect once again. She was the most agile of them all and would have the best chance of getting it right.
"We'll put you in a HAZMAT suit and have someone anchor you-"
"Me," Ronon put in, his tone allowing no discussion. In spite of the situation, John had to smile. For better or worse, his team stuck together.
Elizabeth stepped back to allow Lorne, arms loaded with power cells, into the jumper. Turning to Rodney and Radek, she said, "As soon as you're through the 'gate, I'll have everyone from the Daedalus leave for the Alpha site. Lome and Witner, you'll be on standby on Polrusso. When you get there, shut down the 'gate and redial Atlantis so that we can keep in contact and transfer the ZPM quickly if necessary." She met John's gaze. "I'll need you to leave me your access code. It won't be necessary, of course, but if you don't succeed, I'll need two codes to set the city to self-destruct."
Radek gave her a somber look. "That will not be sufficient "
Once again, comprehension hit them all like a slap in the face. Despite the swaying motion of the city, Elizabeth stood straighter, and nodded. "I'll remain behind at the Alpha site."
John had always admired Elizabeth for reasons that went beyond leadership skills, because not all leaders, no matter how great, were prepared to go down with the ship. The city's self-destruct wouldn't damage the 'gate, and the crystal necessary to dial Earth would be left behind at the Alpha site after the expedition had departed. If Ea's intent had been to `reset' the Pegasus galaxy to zero, there would be nothing to prevent the active nanites from accessing Earth and who knew how many other galaxies whose addresses were secreted away in the bowels of some Ancient database.
After a pause, during which Rodney must have racked his brain for another solution, he finally said, "To destroy the crystal, open a wormhole to anywhere and toss it into the vortex."
There were a lot of things John wanted to say to Elizabeth in that moment-about what they were about to do, and about everything they'd done over the past two years. All the words that came to mind seemed inadequate, and so he took the coward's way out. "Saddle up, everyone. Time to leave"
"I will come" Radek immediately stepped inside the jumper, surprising the hell out of John. "I have had less… excitement these last days"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Rodney shook his head. "You hate playing submariner. Don't be ridiculous. I'll do it."
"But I in fact want to go," the Czech persisted. "True, I have not yet learned to swim, but I realize that I must face my fears."
"Oh, as opposed to me, because I obviously can't handle it?"
"That is not what I said."
Radek's calm tone must have tipped the balance, because Rodney snarled, "You're coddling me! I don't need to be coddled!"
"Guys!" John was ready to put floaties on both of them. "That ZPM's not going to hold back the nanites forever. Flip a damn coin and let's get this over with." It was a gamble, he knew, but he needed Rodney to snap out of it. He turned back to the control panel.
"I'm not flipping a coin, and I'm not arguing. I'm leaving." Rodney stepped inside and took his place in the cockpit beside John, Nabu following behind.
"Then I will wait here with Dr. Weir," Radek called after him. "Perhaps I can improve the self-destruct."
"Oh, so now he thinks he can blow things up better than me," Rodney sniffed.
A little of his usual swagger had returned with that comment. It would have to do. John tossed a last look over his shoulder at Elizabeth, Radek, and Lome, as Ronon closed the hatch. "Don't start the apocalypse without us"
Chapter Twenty-one
"Looking at our choices, I think we'll take the low road," Colonel Sheppard suggested when Jumper One emerged through the bay doors.
Teyla had sensed only disorder, not malice, from the nanites when she and Lieutenant Corletti had taken Jumper Three into the gray goo. If her understanding was correct, that situation was now changing. The storm outside Atlantis's force field made the one that had threatened the mainland seem feeble by comparison. Black and gray fluid swirled across the energy bubble with an almost tangible intent to burst in. Bright flashes periodically erupted against the shield; lightning bolts of a sort, perhaps, arcing across the surface in spidery veins of green and purple.
Seated beside her, Nabu was looking down at the city below, his eyes shining with appreciation. Despite the tempest beyond and the absence of illumination now that the city had been powered down, it was an impressive sight, one that Teyla had never failed to admire. Its loss would indeed be tragic, for so many reasons.
"The ocean directly beneath the city shield is still unaffected," Rodney announced from the front right seat. His eyes darted between the datapad in his hand and the electric display outside. "The nanites are beginning to absorb energy from the shield, which means even with the replacement ZPM we may run out of time."
"How long?" Sheppard asked, angling Jumper One down toward a relatively calm patch of water between the south and west piers of the city.
"The nanites are now operating within their own temporal field, so time isn't easily quantifiable. From our perspective, I'd say three hours is radically optimistic."
"To drain an entire ZPM?" Sheppard didn't hide his disbelief.
"It would not be hours from the point of view of the nanites, Colonel Sheppard," Nabu explained. "For them it would be thousands of years." He barely flinched when the jumper plunged beneath the surface of the ocean.
"Okay, explain that," Ronon declared, voicing Teyla's thoughts as well. "How does a bunch of gray stuff have a point of view?"
"Because each and every nanite is encased in its own individual, micro-thin temporal distortion field." Rodney's clipped explanation provided no enlightenment, but before Ronon could question further, their attention was diverted to the HUD. "We may have an even bigger problem."
"Problems don't get bigger than this, Rodney," Sheppard said under his breath, his gaze apprehensive as he studied the display. The depth of the ocean beneath Atlantis had been reduced by some fifty meters and was becoming shallower with every moment that passed.
"The goo in the atmosphere is converting the water from the surface down." Rodney adjusted the display to show their projected path to the submarine trench. It was not, as Teyla had hoped, simply a matter of going deeper. Instead, they would be required to negotiate a passage across hundreds of miles, traversing several shallow areas-some of which would soon be engulfed by the rapidly spreading grayness. "Don't use the external lights," Rodney warned. "We're going to need every one of those power cells and then some. At the rate the nanites are converting the ocean, our chances of getting back are looking slim."