New Fic: Legacy of the Last, Pt. 2

[katstales]

Title: Legacy of the Last
Author: katstale
Rating: PG
Category: Gen
Word Count: 9050
Characters: John & Rodney, with a little Carson and Lorne thrown in
Pairings: None
Challenge: Um, not really a challenge per se, but karri_kln1671 asked for a Sheplantis story.
Spoilers/Warnings: Spoilers for The Return, Pt. 2 (season 3); much whumping of various characters--especially John. :D
Summary: When random systems on Atlantis begin shutting down for no apparent reason, Rodney and John are cut off from the rest of the city. Then John suffers an attack of unknown origin and collapses and it's up to Rodney to find out what's happening and why--before it's too late for both Sheppard and the city.
Notes: This is unashamedly and unabashedly a Sheplantis story (Sheppard and his gene interacting with the city). If you dislike stories where Atlantis appears almost sentient, then you'll probably want to give this one a pass. :)

For the girls in chat, who never cease to amaze and inspire me. You guys are AWESOME!

Continued from Part 1

Before Carson could reply, Evan Lorne strolled into the room with a security team. "Hey Doc, Doc. Everything okay in here?"

"NO!" Both doctors answered simultaneously with a vehemence that had the major flinching.

Beckett was the first to explain. "Rodney needs your help, Major. And I need ta get Colonel Sheppard to the infirmary right way."

"Fine," agreed Rodney. "But you'd better leave a couple of your medics and your equipment." He then turned to a stunned Lorne. "Major, if you would be so kind as to get in the chair, I'll explain what we need to do as we go. Oh, and, um, this is probably going to be extremely painful, just so you know."

"What? I think someone had better explain to me what's going on," insisted Lorne.

"There's no time for that now--just get in the chair and I'll explain later." Rodney was equally determined, his voice urgent.

"Sorry, Doc, but no can do. With Colonel Sheppard down, I'm the ranking officer here. So you tell me what's going down or I can't help you."

McKay rolled his eyes, rattling off the explanation as fast as he could. "When the Ancients came back, they were apparently not pleased to find us inhabiting their city. As such, one of their scientists began working on a program to keep Atlantis from ever falling into the hands of non-Ancients again. Now from what I can tell, the program was still being developed when the Asurans attacked and it's not functioning properly. And while I don't yet know how, that program was somehow triggered this morning. Now if you will be so kind as to get into the chair?"

"Is that what was behind all the power outages?" Even as he asked, Lorne was moving toward the chair, careful to avoid the medics and equipment. "And what happened to Colonel Sheppard?"

Rodney sighed. "Look, we don't have time for all the details right now. Suffice it to say that yes, Sheppard was targeted by the same program for operating Ancient technology and attacked while he helped me to get main power back online. And I should probably warn you that you'll be number one on it's hit list once you begin, by the way, and it's a spot you'll no doubt hold until we can get it shut down."

Lorne paused at that, but only for a moment. "No other way, huh? Mind if I at least ask what's going to happen?"

"Of course," McKay agreed. "The aforementioned program is going after any and every non-Ancient in the city who tries to operate any of the Ancient technology here. And according to what I've found, it isn't going to stop there. By this time tomorrow, it will have sought out and destroyed every non-Ancient ATA gene carrier in the city. Suffice it to say, this means that you'll soon be experiencing a severe nosebleed, along with an excruciatingly painful headache, not to mention muscle weakness and, as a result, it's possible that your heart could eventually stop. But I'm confident we can shut this thing down long before that happens," he added. "Probably."

"Bloody hell!" Carson listened in on Rodney's explanation as the medical team loaded Sheppard onto a gurney for transport. "They must've been more 'an a wee bit daft to even attempt to create such a vile thing." Without waiting for a reaction from the physicist, he turned to the members of his team. "Lucy, Eric, Ryan? I'd like you three ta stay behind in case the major needs assistance."

Lorne nodded gratefully at Beckett as he sat down on the chair. "Thanks, Doc, appreciate it." Breathing deeply, he nodded at McKay and leaned back. "All right, McKay, let's do this." The chair came to life under his touch, if not quite as rapidly as it had for Sheppard.

"We'll start here in this section. I'll need you to initiate an interface here and here." As Rodney gave the major his instructions, the departing medical team began to wheel the gurney bearing Sheppard away. McKay shot a brief look of concern at the stretcher before returning his attention to the task at hand.

Carson had not missed the gesture, however, and tried to reassure him. "We'll take good care of him, Rodney, I promise. Good luck to you and the major there."

McKay waved absently, already deeply engrossed in the work Lorne was doing. As the officer continued to manipulate the controls on the arms of the chair, a deep crease formed across his forehead. It didn't take long after that for a trickle of blood to appear from the major's nose.

The three medics were also watching Lorne for signs of distress and when one stepped toward the chair, Rodney held up a hand for him to stay back. "Back off already. If you keep interrupting before he really needs you, we're never going to make any progress."

"He's right--I'll let you know when I need you." The major continued to work as he gave the order, the pain lines in his forehead deepening more with each passing moment.

"Okay, good, that's good. Now I need you reroute this subroutine over there, but keep the connections open here, here, and here." Rodney carefully guided him through the sequence, watching for any further sign of distress on the officer's part.

Lorne had barely made it through the first adjustments when that sign came. "You weren't kidding about that headache, were you?" He tried to laugh it off, only to have it come out as a groan instead. Determined, he forced his hands to keep manipulating the controls in spite of the intense pain.

Though his growing discomfort had them edgy, it was the dramatic increase in the flow of blood from his nose that spurred the medics into action. "I got it." Ryan stepped up to approach the chair, a gauze in hand and ready to pack into the major's nostrils. He tried to stay out of Lorne's way as much as possible, knowing what was at stake if they failed to shut down the program. Working as quickly and efficiently as possible, he finished his treatment and stepped back to allow the pair to finish their task.

McKay nodded at the medic, knowing the treatment was needed and approving of his backing out of the way again so promptly. He then gave Lorne the next set of instructions and waited for them to be carried out. He alternated between watching the officer for the inevitable worsening of symptoms and checking the information scrolling across his data pad. As the first signs of tremors in the major's arms became apparent, Rodney mentally cursed. Damn it! This was taking too long. Lorne's symptoms were progressing rapidly--too rapidly. If they didn't hurry, the major would end up just as bad off as Sheppard. Or worse.

"Any way to speed things up a little here, Doc?" Lorne's question came through gritted teeth, yet one more sign of the tremendous pain that was being inflicted upon him.

"Well if there were, don't you think I'd be using it?" Before anyone could react, McKay suddenly snapped his fingers. "Unless..." He didn't bother explaining, but his stylus began to move at a frantic pace all over his screen. "If I change this to that and that to this and bypass that altogether..."

Just as Rodney finished up the adjustments, Lorne gasped loudly from the increasing strain on his body. "All right, Major, you'll need to access the program from the mainframe while keeping the interface with the secondary systems you were just working on."

"On it," he answered, his voice weakening as quickly as his muscles.

"Good, good. Now we need to begin shutting down the access points, but you'll have to do it in the exact order I give you--and I cannot stress this enough, I do mean exact order. Even the tiniest little divergence from the sequence could spell disaster for us all--got it?"

Lorne was breathing hard, his face contorted with the pain. "I got it...now start...giving me sequence...before 's too late. Don't know...how much longer...can hold on...here."

Lucy stepped forward, leaning over to get the major's pulse and check pupil response. "What exactly are your symptoms, Major Lorne?"

"We don't have time for that!" snapped Rodney. "We're at a critical phase here, in case you hadn't noticed, and he's going to need every bit of concentration he can muster to make sure he gets this right."

"McKay's right...ma'am. Need to focus..on instructions...'s getting hard...enough...without you...shining...lights in my...eyes." The officer groaned as soon as he finished speaking, almost an underscore of how dire his situation was becoming.

The medic wasn't going to be so easily swayed. "I'm sorry, Major, but it's my job to look after you. I'm going to have to insist you allow us to step in before your condition becomes anymore critical."

Rodney saved Lorne the effort of answering. "Hello? Did you not hear me say that if we don't get this program shut down that every single gene carrier in the city will be dead by tomorrow--him included? At this moment there is *nothing* more critical than that, so move back and stay out of the way."

"He's right, lass. I don' like it any better than you, but we have to allow him to try to finish." Surprised at Beckett's reappearance, Lucy nonetheless backed off.

"What are you doing back here? I thought you couldn't leave Sheppard." Though Rodney voiced the question they were all thinking, his eyes never left the screen of his computer as he began explaining the procedure to the major. "All right, you need to begin the shutdown here, then move here, here, here, here, and here."

"Got...it." Lorne's confirmation came through gritted teeth even as he began to implement the sequence.

"Doctor Karey is seeing to the colonel. He's stable enough for the time being, so I thought I best come see how things were progressing down here."

Rodney gave a half-wave in acknowledgement before he blocked out the sounds of Beckett and the medical team as they readied equipment, concentrating solely on the man in the chair and the task before them. "Good, good, almost there. Next we need to initiate shut down here, here, here, here, and then here."

The major gave a small nod accompanied by a half-sob in answer, again fighting to make the controls respond and do his bidding. As McKay looked on, he couldn't help but flashback to just a short time earlier when his friend and team leader was sitting in the same chair, going through the same agony in an attempt to save the city. He ruthlessly shoved the image and feelings aside, rubbing his forehead as he watched to see that Lorne did as requested in the correct sequence. The throbbing in his own head was increasing exponentially, so he had no doubt that Lorne was experiencing far worse.

"Yes! Now override this connection here and then close off these last three interfaces here, here, and then here." Rodney held his breath as Lorne's shaking hands worked to complete the final steps in the process.

"That it...I hope?" Though his voice was still weak and the tremors in his extremities continued, the pain lines creasing the major's forehead began to lessen.

"Just let me check...looks good there, nothing there...." Though Rodney's own headache had eased, he was leaving nothing to chance. He quickly ran through his list of checkpoints, constantly muttering a running commentary under his breath, until finally, he was satisfied. "That's it--you did it! Good job, Major. You can relax now."

The officer didn't answer, his head lolling to the side as his eyes rolled up into his head. Rodney tried to call for Carson, but the words wouldn't come and he managed nothing more than an unintelligible squeak. Before he even knew what was happening, someone was pulling the computer from his hands and guiding him to a waiting gurney. He tried to protest, wanting to stay to see how Lorne was doing, but again, no words would come to him. Voices drifted all around him, nothing more than a buzzing noise in his ears.

Hands forced him onto his back, but he tried to fight them. To his surprise, he found that he was too weak, the same tremors that Sheppard and Lorne had experienced running through his arms and legs. A gray hue settled over his vision as he attempted to speak, to tell them that something was wrong. Only the harder he tried, the darker the room became, until finally, he knew no more.

~A~

"Well when is he going to wake up? Lorne and I have been awake for hours now--why is Sheppard still out?"

McKay's demanding whine was the first thing John heard when awareness returned. He thought he should probably let him know he was awake, but he couldn't seem to find the energy to make the effort.

"Rodney, I already told ye, Colonel Sheppard will wake up when he's good and ready--and not before. He was a lot worse off than either you or the major. He lost a fair amount o' blood, so it's going to take him a wee bit longer to recover. Give him time; I'll let ye know when it's time to worry. Now either ye get back to your bed or I'll confiscate that computer ye bullied Radek into bringing ye."

Ah, so Carson was nearby as well. That wasn't really surprising, given the doctor's penchant for insisting upon erring on the side of caution. Wait a minute, was that about him being worse off than Rodney or Lorne?

He searched his fuzzy mind for the answer to why he--why *they*--were in here in the first place, but he came up empty. If only the pounding in his head would stop, then maybe he could find the answer.

"You can't do that! I need that computer to analyze the program responsible for this mess! I have to be sure that there is absolutely no possibility that we could inadvertently trigger it again. Or would you rather take the risk of going through this again? Maybe we could even manage to wait long enough this time for it to kill someone."

Program? A computer program was responsible for this...whatever had happened? Okay, that didn't sound good at all. It was time to find the ability to let them know he was awake and get some answers.

Summoning every ounce of strength he had, he called out. "Hey, 'm trying to sleep."

He was shocked at how weak his voice sounded and he wasn't completely certain anyone had heard him. He concentrated on convincing his eyelids to open and when he was finally successful, he found Beckett peering down at him.

"It's good to see ye've finally decided to join us, Colonel. Rodney here was getting a mite worried."

John swallowed, trying to wet his dry mouth. "What happened?" The words had no sooner left his mouth than the tickle in his throat erupted into a cough. Pain exploded in his chest, leaving him gasping for air.

"Easy there, Colonel." He could hear Carson's voice, though it sounded far away and tinny through the haze of pain.

He did his best to follow the doctor's orders and, though the pain didn't go away completely, he managed to get it under control enough to eventually take a sip of the water being offered him. The cool liquid took away the urge to cough and he gratefully collapsed back onto the bed. It took another few moments before he was recovered enough to speak. "What the hell happened?"

Beckett and McKay exchanged a knowing look before the physicist finally began to clue him in. "You were...attacked."

Sheppard waited for him to explain, but when no further information was offered, he shot Rodney an irritated look. "By?"

The physicist shifted uncomfortably. "By, um, by...Atlantis."

"Is this some kind of joke? Because gotta tell ya, I'm really not seeing the humor here."

McKay rolled his eyes. "Of course not--not all of us share your juvenile delinquent sense of humor, you know. I, for one, would never stoop to such childish behavior."

Carson nearly choked upon hearing McKay's declaration, earning himself another glare from the physicist. Rodney shook his head and turned his attention back to Sheppard. "You remember the power outages and storming into my lab earlier?"

John nodded. "Yeah, you were trying to figure out what was causing it. I remember you telling me that you were working on it, but things get kind of fuzzy after that. What'd I miss?"

Rodney took a deep breath. "You touched a console in my lab, which activated it, and then promptly collapsed. I called Beckett, but the comm went down before he got there. You woke up and said that Atlantis told you that we had to get to the Chair room--and you owe me one for bleeding all over my lab, by the way. Anyway, I did what I could to stop your nosebleed and we set off for the Chair room. Only the city went into lockdown and not even the emergency lighting was working. So I practically carried you all the way to the chair room. Only there wasn't any power there either--or so I thought. But you insisted that Atlantis told you the Chair still had power and you had to use it to fix her."

Sheppard shook his head. "That's crazy. Atlantis told me? Come on, buddy, you're slipping. Granted she's a pretty amazing city, but she's still just a city--and last time I checked, cities don't talk to people."

"Hey, don't look at me--you're the one who said she told you, not me. The really weird thing is you were right. The chair did still have power. Only you weren't doing so well, but you insisted you had to do it and you nearly gave me a heart attack when you passed out again in the middle of showing me what was causing the problem."

"Well I see you managed to survive it better than I apparently did, so how about we skip the lectures and get on to the part where you tell me how you single-handedly saved all of us, along with the city. Again."

"How did you know...oh, right, I get it. More of that friends-kidding-thing again. Well as it so happens, joking or not, you're right. I did save the city, yet again, and consequently, all of the people in it. Again."

Another loud cough from Carson had McKay hastily backtracking. "Although I suppose some of the credit should possibly go to you, since you did lead me through to where the problem was. Although how you knew what I needed to see before I could even ask you for it is something I'd definitely like an answer to."

Another cough from Beckett had Rodney qualifying even further. "Fine, and possibly Major Lorne over there as well." He craned his neck to look back at the physician. "Now is that it or is there someone else you seem to think also deserves a spot in the limelight here?"

Before the Scot could answer, John was trying to sit up and find the major. "Where is Lorne? How bad is he hurt?"

"Lay back and take it easy, Colonel. The major is right over there, resting like he was told. Unlike some people." Carson shot a pointed glare at McKay as he finished speaking.

Sheppard spied Lorne several beds over, being tended by a reddish-blonde nurse. Kelly? Kacey? No, Kelly. It was definitely Kelly. Or Kacey.

His attention was pulled back to the matter at hand by Beckett's distinctive brogue. "All right, Rodney, ye've seen the colonel awake--now it's time to get back to your own bed."

"No wait!" The room spun as John whipped his head back around to face the two men next to his bed. Even before it settled, he continued his plea. "He still hasn't told me how this...whatever happened."

Carson sighed. "All right, but ye best be quick about it. Rodney wasna affected as badly as you or Major Lorne, but he got a fair dose of backlash from the chair himself and needs to rest--not to mention ye yourself bein' the worst off of the lot."

"Fine," agreed Sheppard. "He can bottom-line it for me. How the heck did *Atlantis* put the three of us in the infirmary?"

McKay smiled, quite happy to provide the information. "Oh, well, it was really quite ingenious. One of the Ancients had begun work on a program that would have prevented any non-Ancient gene carrier from initializing or operating any of the technology that requires an ATA gene. He managed to focus an intense low frequency beam combined with an EM field to target a specific user--any unauthorized, non-Ancient ATA carrier who attempts to operate any of the city's technology--while shielding it from everyone else."

"Rodney!" Beckett's warning tone stopped the scientist in mid-explanation, earning him another glare from the physicist. "Bottom-line, remember?"

"You said he'd begun to work on it?" Sheppard ignored Carson's warning, wanting to know what had happened and, more importantly, to know that it wasn't going to happen again.

"Yes, well, from what I've been able to ascertain, it appears his work was interrupted by the attack on the city from the Replicators. This program was not originally meant to seriously harm anyone--only to deter them from using the technology or taking up residence in the city. I don't know how it was triggered--yet--but I'm working on it." Rodney also happily ignored the Scot's warning and carried on as if he'd never spoken. "But once it was initiated, the program began shutting down power, eventually going into total lockdown. That's where you came in and how you ended up in here. Eventually."

John's eyes widened for an instant. "Wow, that's some legacy to leave behind. There's still one thing you haven't told me, though--how did this beam-thing manage to break my ribs?"

McKay shot a panicked look at Beckett. "Um, well...it, um, didn't."

"Rodney." The warning in Sheppard's tone was clear--he wanted answers and he wanted them now.

"All right, I'm sorry, okay? But what was I supposed to do--just stand there and watch you die? You finished restoring the power, but then you weren't breathing and I had to drag you out of the chair and I still couldn't reach Carson because the comm hadn't come back online yet and I didn't know what else to do so I started CPR, but you still weren't breathing and it seemed like I was doing it forever, but I had to keep it up because if I didn't you'd be dead and I was afraid it had been too long and you might be getting brain damage, but then I heard this noise and then I realized that your ribs, um, broke. Sort of."

"You broke my ribs?" Sheppard was incredulous. "And trust me, there is no "sort of" about it--they're definitely broken."

Carson had heard enough. "Colonel, may I remind ye that if Rodney hadn't performed CPR in such a timely fashion, ye would'na be here right now? And have ye also forgotten that it's na uncommon at all for ribs to break under properly administered CPR?"

Properly chastised, John sighed. "Well, I suppose since you did save my life and all, I can probably forgive you for breaking my ribs--this time."

"Oh how very generous of you," sniped McKay. "Next time I should just stand there and wait for the medical team to arrive and hope for the best."

"Here's an idea for ye," suggested the Scot. "How about ye both be more careful and make certain that there won't be a next time?"

Sheppard tilted his head in a half-nod to McKay. "He does have a point there."

"Well," agreed Rodney. "I suppose that would solve a number of problems."

John looked at the ceiling and pondered the situation further. "Not nearly as exciting, though."

"Yes, well, there is that."

"Och, bloody fools, the both of ye." Carson shook his head at the pair. "All right, Rodney. The colonel's had his explanation, so now it's time to get back in your own bed and the both of ye are going to rest--no arguments."

Sheppard's eyes were already closing as McKay rose and started back to his bed. "Rodney?"

McKay stopped and turned around, a wary look on his face. "Yes?"

"Thanks."

Rodney smiled, waving as he headed back to his bed. "Yeah, sure. Anytime."

~~The End~~