16. ROI

Everything went to hell at 7:19 AM Standard Atlantian Time (SAT).

Mer sat in the mess rationalizing his way through a plate of purple vegetables and “some kind of egg” when the lights flared. Lorne dropped his full tray of food, looking like he had been stabbed in the back, then ran out of the mess before his meal finished splattering itself across everyone within five feet.

Mer was already up and headed out himself when Chuck’s voice rang through his earpiece.

“DHD offline! Fuck! Amanda, shut that down! No, THAT! Fuck! McKay—“

“What the hell have you done?”

“Not a fucking thing, you ass! The DHD imploded or—“

Mer pelted down the halls to the transporter while Atlantis went insane around them. It wasn’t hard to interpret the effects of an overload on the naquadah generators. They were not the most reliable power sources, except for the fact that they were because everything else in Atlantis was 10,000+ years old and therefore even more fucking cranky than the generators. But something was taking them out, and the only thing that could was Atlantis itself.

“Goddamnit get Weir out of the control room—“

“On it, McKay! Her security detail already has her loaded on Gateship Four. Markham’s at the wheel, Grodin’s with them.” Chuck shouted over the chaos.

“Get them launched! And tell me what the fuck is—“

“This is Lorne. Get your ass to the command chair, McKay!”

“This is Gateship Four changing designation to Atlantis One. We are in the air. Headed for the rendezvous point. Radio silence in three…two…one.” Markham’s voice interrupted then cut out, following protocol.

Lorne was still shouting. “McKay!”

“I’m coming! What are you doing?” Mer hit the guide in the transporter to change destination. “Are you in the chair?”

“Oh hell no, McKay.”

Mer knew, before Lorne said another word. He knew and he also knew what that meant. “Sheppard.”

“He’s locked the room down completely, we can’t get in. Atlantis is ignoring everything I throw at her.”

And that was pretty much the whole of it for the next three hours. McKay set up in the hallway, hacking in through the wall, which was literally cut away for him by several Marines using blowtorches. But the command chair room was built for security, and Mer could not break in no matter what trick he pulled on the systems interface. Even Miko’s brilliantly sneaky and underhanded coding only got the security systems to disengage, but did nothing to actually unlock the door.

Meanwhile, the city screamed.

Carson showed up in tears, begging Mer to make it stop. Lorne looked tense and ill, as if he was going to throw up any second. Two ATA-active scientists passed out, and one of the ATA-active Marines could not stop puking for love or money.

Simpson’s team had disconnected the generators from the grid completely, only one of techs suffering electrical burns. Zhang and company brought their limp ZedPM online to keep power in the city, although Mer did not know how much of a mercy that was as the puking Marine finally passed out. Mer watched him fall against the wall, two other Marines grabbing him as he went down, and that’s when Mer’s brain finally, finally kicked in. He threw the tool he was using on the door at the wall so hard it brought everyone up short.

“Fuck this! UNPLUG! Zhang! Take her offline! Pull the ZedPM out completely!”

“Belay that order, Zhang!” Lorne shouted over him. “We’ll be sitting ducks!”

“We’ll be roadkill if I don’t get that goddamn son of a bitch out of the chair! UNPLUG! Zhang! That’s an order!”

Zhang’s formal and calm British tones sounded distant over the radio as he replied. “Unplugging, Dr. McKay. Generators are fully off line. ZedPM being deactivated. Going dark in three…two—“ The final number was cut off as Atlantis shut down, even the radio relay system victim to the black out.

The hallway was ink black for a second before a trio of Marines pulled out flashlights. Lorne looked broken, covered in sweat and taking deep gulps of air as the city went quiet. He looked over at Mer, his jaw muscles twitching.

“We’re blowing that fucking door, McKay, and I don’t give a rat’s ass what it does to the man on the other side.”

Mer nodded. He suspected Sheppard was going to regret it if he lived through the extraction anyway.

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