She knew how they felt. "Major Sheppard…!"
"We were attacked," he said, as the gate shut down and the room plunged back into the semi-darkness of the ocean. "Sumner and some of his security team were taken-"
Weir reeled at that. Sumner was gone? They'd been there less than a day! Forcing aside her distress, she said, "Who are all these people?"
"Survivors from the settlement," Sheppard explained. He looked exhausted, and pretty shaken. "It was wiped out-"
"Major," she said quietly, trying to keep her voice low, "we're in no position to help anyone…"
Another tremor rippled through the floor, setting the newcomers clutching at each other and whimpering in fear. Behind her, Weir could hear other noises too. Her people assembling as ordered.
Sheppard noticed them too, his eyebrows rising. "What's going on?"
"We were about to abandon the city-"
He shook his head. "Going back there's a bad idea."
Her answer was cut off by the sudden blare of alarms as the quaking continued, intensifying every moment. "Major Sheppard, the shield is about to fail and the ocean is about to come crashing in on us!" she yelled over the sound of the alarms. "If you have a better place for us to go-"
Sheppard turned suddenly to the kid, grabbing his arm. "Jinto, do you know the address of another place we can gate to?"
"Yes," the boy answered bravely. "Many."
Sheppard looked at her, head cocked, as the city began to shake itself apart. Well?
"He's just a boy!"
The kid looked at her. "I am Jinto-"
Not waiting for another answer, Sheppard yanked the boy into motion. "She's pleased to meet you," he said, hauling him toward the control room. "Follow me.
As the Major sprinted up the stairs with Jinto in tow, the lights flickered. Weir glanced up, just in time to see them sputter and fail. All that was left was the blue light of the ocean and the sounds of creeping panic from the new arrivals. Her own people, Weir noted with bleak satisfaction, remained steadfast and calm. She'd chosen them well, and she'd be damned if she let them die here.
At a flat run, she too headed for the control room.
In horrified fascination Rodney McKay stared at the monitor displaying the shield status. All areas were flashing red now. It was over. "The shield is collapsing!" he yelled over the rumbling and shaking of the dying city. "The shield is collapsing!" And he was going to die with it. He was going to drown in an alien city in another galaxy, and no one would know. He wished he'd called his sister. He should have called her…
Suddenly a massive jolt shuddered through the entire city, throwing personnel and equipment to the floor. People were screaming, the gate itself flickering and dying. The noise was incredible, the shaking so intense McKay could feel the fillings rattle in his teeth.
I don't want to die! I don't want to die!
He was clinging to the console for support as the floor bucked and twisted beneath his feet. So frightened he could hardly breathe, he was unable even to screw his eyes shut and blot it all out. Which was why he suddenly noticed the monitor going crazy. The shield was still failing, but something else was happening too. Something else was happening all over the damn city!
Self-preservation finally besting sheer panic, he hauled himself upright and staggered over to the DHD. "I'm dialing an address!" he announced. Any damn address. He refused to die here. He refused to drown like a rat in a goddamn trap!
"No, wait!" Weir stumbled into the control room. He stopped, hand poised over the first symbol. "Dialing out now will just use the last of the remaining power," she yelled over the noise. "This whole section will flood before we can make it out!"
"Staying is not an option!" he yelled back.
She grabbed his arm, her fingers cold on his wrist. "Something's happening, can't you feel it?"
Actually, no. Aside from the brain-rattling tremors and the rumbling and the-
"We're moving." It was Sheppard, struggling up the steps room with the kid.
Moving? It was impossible! How could they be moving? Where the hell would they go?
Sheppard staggered into the control room, and McKay spun around suddenly noticing a shift in the light. It was getting brighter. And the noise was changing timbre too. The rumbling had changed to a sound of… Rushing water, straining metal. Flooding? No, the sound wasn't inside. It was outside.
He could feel it now, his stomach was lurching like he was in an elevator. They were moving. They were rising! The entire city was rising!
So astonished he could hardly process what he was seeing, McKay watched the ocean slip away from the windows. It was replaced by waterfalls cascading from roofs and spires as brilliant, glorious daylight streamed through the water and refracted into rainbows that sparkled across the room. It was a miracle, a bona fide miracle…
I'm not going to die. The thought hit him so hard he actually gasped and felt his knees turn weak with relief. I'm not going to die!
Sheppard ran to the nearest window, beaming like a kid as he stared out. Weir followed more slowly to stand at his side and gaze around her in obvious awe. Finally McKay joined them, his legs still shaky.
"We're on the surface," Weir breathed, almost as if she barely dared to believe it.
Sheppard's grin grew wider. "That we are," he agreed, glancing at McKay. "How did you know?"
If only he had… "I didn't."
Weir laughed softly. "I was hoping for another day, and it looks like we just got more than that." She smiled, somehow managing to convey her elation and determination in one look. "Let's not waste it."
When she tried, Dr. Weir could really be quite inspiring.
Chapter Seven
After the euphoria of escaping a certain and horrible death had faded, the truth began to sink in. Atlantis, the greatest city of the Ancients, was on the surface. Last time it had been on the surface it had been besieged by the Wraith — and having seen these guys up close and personal, John Sheppard could well imagine how much fun that had been. The only way the Ancients had been able to save Atlantis was to sink it. Now his team had brought the city back to the surface with nothing more than a handful of men and a few P90s to defend it. You didn't have to be a master tactician to understand the implications, and Sheppard's delight at their escape was swiftly turning to fear that it was merely a reprieve.
The control room was already flooded, so to speak, with geeks poring over the computers, looking for answers, while McKay — chief geek — was lecturing the rest of them about their situation. As if they didn't already know…
"The last Zero Point Module is depleted," he said, pacing and frowning, "but limited power has returned now that our own generators aren't trying to hold back an ocean. Life support systems are working, although the planet's atmosphere is breathable, notwithstanding the inevitable allergens."
Notwithstanding? Who used words like that…?
"Can our generators supply enough power to the shield for defensive purposes?" Weir asked, getting straight to the point. Sheppard liked that about her.
"Not even close," McKay replied, arms folded. They guy almost looked smug, as if he'd managed to prove that the world really was out to get him.
"On the surface without that shield, we're target practice," Sheppard noted.