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The Return Part II

The General from earth, O'Neill, was not pleased to hear the favor they needed involved swimming underwater into a flooded control room. Kai didn't blame him. McKay's description of what he was looking for and what he had to do was vague at best. Impressively, the General's snark could rival Sheppard's, which was something she hadn't noticed in the brief time they had met on earth.

Once the bay was drained everyone but McKay filed out of the jumper. Kai had offered to stay with him, but he waved her off, shoving an ARG into her chest. Kai begrudgingly followed the others.  She didn't like the idea of leaving McKay alone with the Replicator, even if it was inactive.

The door to the control room was still locked, containing the water which had caused the trouble in the first place. John led the way through a maintenance hatch and up a level so they could rendezvous with the others at the maintenance ladder McKay had said the General would have used to access the control room.

Kai stayed near the back of the group, keeping her senses sharp as she listened for anyone approaching. She hadn't ever encountered a replicator herself, but she was sure she would hear them before they appeared.

As they approached, John slowed, a frown crossing his face. John crouched down and lifted up a spent shell casing.

"They have been captured?" Teyla asked, she had her ARG up and was looking around warily. She had been assigned to keep an eye on both Weir and Beckett as they moved through the halls. Ronon had stepped past the group to watch the hall in front of them while Kai watched their rear.

John's mouth flattened into a grim line. "Looks like..." he couldn't honestly come up with another reasonable explanation. O'Neill wouldn't have missed the opportunity to rendezvous if he was able and the spent shell casings were telling. He glanced around but didn't see any blood. There wasn't any damage to the walls nearby, which meant whatever they were shooting at didn't bleed. Replicators.

Elizabeth shifted her weight uneasily. She didn't have the field experience of even Beckett and she couldn't help but feel exposed here. "Which means their minds will be probed for information any minute now."

John nodded grimly, they were running out of time. He pulled his radio from his belt. "McKay," John said, his voice sharp. "Fire up that virus."

"I'm working as fast as I can," McKay snapped back in a grumpy voice.

Sheppard sighed and tightened his grip on the radio. They didn't have time for McKay being McKay right now. They had no backup and only four real fighters out of their little group of seven. "The replicators have O'Neill and Woolsey."

"Unfortunately, that information can't make me work any faster," McKay snarked, refusing to be cowed.

John's mouth flattened angrily, but he nodded to himself. He turned to the group. "This way," he called with a jerk of his chin and he jogged off down the hall. Ronon and Kai shared a look and the two of them followed the group, keeping an eye on every hall and doorway they passed.

The radio activated again a few moments later and McKay's voice came through, elevated with excitment. "Standby, I've got his power levels about as high as I am comfortable with, I'm going to try to get him..." his voice dragged off.

Kai's head snapped up, her gaze meeting John's from fifteen feet away. There was something to the edge of McKay's voice and she heard something else in the background.

John trusted Kai's reaction more than his own hearing. He raised his hand to his comm. "McKay?" he called and when there was no answer he turned to the group. "Ronon, Teyla, head back to the jumper," John ordered then he activated his radio once more. "Come in McKay!"

"Fall back to the jumper!" McKay's voice suddenly shouted through the comms, high with stress. "We're going to need a new plan."

John was the first through the door, although Kai was right beside him, her ARG raised and ready. There had been another voice in the background of McKay's radio, but she couldn't be sure it had been Niam. She had never met him when he was awake. When they cleared the bay and worked their way to the jumper they found McKay sitting on the bench, holding his head in his hands. John frowned and then crouched, scooping up a pile of small metal shards.

"It wasn't my fault!" McKay insisted. "His power levels were no where near high enough for him to activate, let alone stand and talk. One minute he was a Popsicle and the next he came to life!" McKay spoke almost too fast to track.

Kai wasn't sure what a popsicle was but she got the gist of what had happened. She wished she had been part of some of the replicator research projects so she could have been more helpful. At this point she could offer little more than her ability to fight, but even that wasn't very helpful against this enemy.

"He just came to life?" Elizabeth clarified with a confused frown.

"They must have gotten to O'Neill and Woolsey," Ronon's voice rumbled from behind them.

Sheppard stood, dusting the shards off his hands. "O'Neill never would have given us away."

"Obviously their minds were probed," Teyla supplied helpfully.

Sheppard nodded, pinching the bridge of his nose. They just could not catch a break on this one. "Well, they know we're here and how we got in."

"Which is how they were able to reactivate Niam which pretty much screws plan A," McKay snapped shoving himself to his feet with an angry sigh.

Kai frowned down at the pile metal as she considered what they could do next. She wasn't as familiar with the replicators as the others since she hadn't ever encountered them personally. They weren't something they could fight, not in the traditional way. They needed to think their way through this one.

"Could you activate the freezing program another way?" Carson asked.

"No, I need to load the program directly into a replicator and spread it that way," McKay said cupping his forehead as though he had a headache.

"All right, so that plans out the window...we need another one..." Weir dragged off.

Ronon grunted. "Well these weapons blow them apart, right? I say we just start killing them."

McKay shot Ronon a withering look. "While normally I would share your run-and-gun enthusiasm, but these weapons are only going to work for so long before they manage to identify the frequency they use to disrupt the bonds that hold the replicators together."

Ronon turned to Sheppard. "What did he say?"

"They build up an immunity," John translated.

"Exactly," McKay snapped brittly "Look the freezing program would have worked because they would be unable to communicate with one another-"

Kai stepped up the ramp and took McKay's tablet from his hand while he explained to the others about the plan. She already understood the finer points, and didn't need to listen. They needed something else.

"-while we were blasting them. But the more we shoot, the greater the likelihood these weapons are going to become ineffective."

Kai scanned through the data. The bonds that held the replicators together didn't look that much different from the structure of the shield and cloak programs. Which made sense as they all originated from the same technology of the Ancients.

"So what are our options?" Weir asked impatiently.

"I just gave you one," Ronon rumbled behind her. Weir looked over her shoulder at him with an impatient frown. She knew she wasn't the only one who often wondered how exactly the colonel managed to control him team. Not a single one of them seemed to listen to each other. All they had done since arriving was bicker like children.

"We'll call that...Plan B..." Sheppard said with a grin.

"Anyone for a Plan C?" Weir asked sharply. She didn't find this situation nearly as funny as Sheppard and Ronon seemed to. They were in serious trouble and if they failed it would cost them not only Atlantis, but also their lives.

"These bonds..." Kai dragged off thoughtfully. She scanned the lines of code with a frown. There were differences, sure, but when she put them side by side they were more similar than different.

McKay heaved an impatient sigh and marched over to Kai, reading over her shoulder. When he saw the two code elements displayed side by side his whole face lit up. "That just might work," he said in disbelief. "Why didn't I think of that?"

"Because you were thinking of how to freeze them," Kai pointed out patiently.

"It'll be tricky to get them all done without being discovered, if we miss even one, it won't work," McKay said.

"We will have to move quickly to get everything in place before they figure it out. Perhaps a diversion as well would be useful," Kai said grimly.

The others all exchanged confused looks, unsure what had gotten McKay so excited and been important enough to prompt Kai to speak more than she had the entire trip.

McKay turned to Sheppard snapping his fingers excitedly. "How much C-4 do we have?" he asked.

Kai lowered the tablet with a frown as she looked at McKay. He wasn't normally the type to suggest explosives. A bomb would certainly be a distraction, but perhaps not as effective as the first one in the control room.

"A bunch, why?" Sheppard asked suspiciously

"Well, it's desperate."

"So are we," Weir pointed out stepping closer.

"We need to split into groups," McKay told them.

"I was going to suggest that anyway," Sheppard said. "Why, what are you thinking?" he asked looking back and forth between Kai and McKay, but Kai had already turned away, letting McKay speak to their plan rather than engaging. She took the opportunity to move back to the back of the group.

McKay seemed entirely oblivious to Kai's sudden retreat. "If we're going to destroy these guys using Replicator disruptors we have to hit them all at once. We'll probably get only a dozen or so shots off before they manage to figure out the frequency."

"So what, you going to get them all to stand in one place at the same time?" John's frustration with the situation and with Kai made his snark even sharper than usual.

"Clever, yes, or...we could figure out a way to send one massive blast through the city. The bond structure isn't that different from the cities shield and cloak. Look, follow me," he said and he let them down another maintenance hallway and slid out a crystal tray from the wall. "Atlantis has ten of these emitters with which it creates the city's shield. So, if we interface the crystals from the disruptor weapons with those of the shield emitters we should be able to trigger a massive anti-replicator wave through the city."

"Okay," John agreed, following along. "That's where splitting into teams comes in," he was already working out the best teams out of the group.

"Exactly," McKay agreed with a sharp nod. "Now, I need to show you how to do this, so pay attention. You slide out the crystal tray, you take the crystal from the replicator weapon, you place it in the third slot from the right. Third symbol from the left activates the crystal tray. Clear on that? Great."

"They're bound to find one of our groups working on the shield emitters," Teyla pointed out.

"I've already thought of that. That's what the C4 is for," McKay said.

"We blow them up?" Ronon asked hopefully.

"No," McKay said with a shake of his head. He gestured toward Kai. "We feed them misinformation."

"All right," John said stepping forward and taking control of the conversation. "We have nine more emitter stations to activate. Teams are McKay and I, Ronon and Kai, Teyla, Beckett and Weir. Once you have made all your alterations, avoid using your shiny new toys, even if that means getting caught, okay?"

Kai lifted her chin. "I don't need a partner, it's a waste. Send Weir with Ronon and we can cover more of the stations, faster."

John narrowed his eyes, he didn't like it. He had specifically chosen Ronon to stay with Kai because he would watch her back and she seemed comfortable with him.

"I'll work faster alone," Kai told him. "I'll cover these three,"
She said pointing on the tablet, then she lifted her ARG, and headed off down the hall alone.

John blew out a sigh. He honestly couldn't make her listen to him. None of this was an official mission, they were all here because they volunteered, but it wasn't like Kai to compromise the mission by being independent no matter how upset she was with him.

Teyla shot John a worried look, but he ignored he. He didn't want to admit she may have been right about how he had handled the whole situation. He didn't need Teyla to know that he had completely screwed it up.

John tightened his jaw and turned back to the others. He could wallow later. They had a mission to complete. "McKay and I, Ronon and Weir, Teyla and Beckett. Move," he ordered and they all jogged off to different parts of the city. John just hoped their plan would work.

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John led McKay straight down to the brig. He knew the others could handle their crystal trays or whatever, but this part relied entirely on McKay's performance. He didn't have much hope that McKay could manage to lie to the General, but if they past reports on replicators were to be believed, General O'Neill could withstand the mind probing. They just needed to convince Woolsey.

Sheppard stepped through the doorway first, shooting the first Replicator guard before he knew what was happening. The second Replicator was still reaching for his gun when John shot him too. John stepped up to the cell, quickly assessing the prisoners physical condition. No one looked hurt.

"Well, it's about time," O'Neill snapped, climbing to his feet.

"Thank god!" Woolsey said rushing towards the door.

"All right," John said to McKay. "Get them out of here, I'll stand guard," he said moving back towards the door. He was standing guard, technically, but really he was buying McKay enough time to do his part. It was going to be a difficult line to walk. He needed to get McKay enough time to explain their false plan without getting themselves caught too soon. They still had one crystal tray to switch out and the Replicators would need enough time to interrogate Woolsey. The second Replicator would have been able to contact the others. It would be less than three minutes before someone was here.

John gave it as long as he dared before jogging back into the room. "We've got company," he said. He met McKay's eyes who nodded once to show he had conveyed the information needed to Woolsey.

Sheppard turned to O'Neill. "Sorry sir, we're gonna have to come back for you."

McKay's eyes widened comically. "No, no, no," he chanted nervously. "We can't leave them here. They know too much."

John turned and shot McKay an incredulous look. "What'd you tell them?" he demanded.

"I-I mean, I mean," McKay stammered. "They guessed most of it."

Sheppard slapped the back of McKay's head, moving too fast for McKay to duck away from the blow. "What and you filled in the rest?" he asked incredulously.

"I thought I would have time to get them out of here," McKay whispered yelled at Sheppard. He turned back to O'Neill and Woolsey. "Look, just...forget what I said."

O'Neill made a noise of disgust in the back of his throat while Woolsey paced away. O'Neill turned back to John. "Sheppard, get out of here while you still can, that's an order."

John hesitated as though he didn't like the idea of leaving them behind. "Sorry it has to be this way."

"Yeah I get it, go," O'Neill said pointing towards the door.

John and McKay jogged out of the door and down the hall. There was one crystal tray near them and they headed straight for it.

"General O'Neill didn't buy it, but I'm pretty sure Woolsey did," John said hurrying McKay down the hall. He glanced behind them, but no one was pursuing them. Why would they, when it would be much easier to just interrogate the prisoners they already had.

"Well, I did win a Sears Drama festival award when I was a kid. Could have made it a career if I had wanted," McKay said self importantly.

Sheppard rolled his eyes. "I wish you would have."

McKay shot him a disgruntled look but turned his attention to the crystal tray. He slid it out and with quick practiced fingers switched out the emitters and activated the tray. "Okay, that should do. Everything's over but the crying."

"Hopefully them, not us," John said thoughtfully.

There was a loud clanging noise. "What the hell?" McKay muttered and he marched over to a control counsel." No wonder they weren't coming after us, they've been busy repairing the city."

A rumbled started beneath their feet and John got a very bad feeling. "What is that?" he asked, although he was pretty sure he already knew.

"They brought their ZPM's to power the star drive," McKay said in slow horror.

"So that sound is the engines...?"

"And the city about to take off," McKay confirmed. "It's time to start crying."

John ground his teeth. This had to be the worst luck he had ever experienced on a mission with the only exception being the time he and Kai were stranded on that Wraith planet. "They'll still have to activate the shield to take off, won't they?" John asked. "We got most of their emitters."

"Yeah well most ain't gonna cut it. It's all or nothing."

"What do they want to fly around for?" John asked angrily.

"Well, maybe they want to fly home, back to their homeworld."

"Or take on the Daedalus," John muttered as he began pacing back and forth across the small space. "Well, how are we gonna stop them?" John demanded.

McKay shrugged helplessly.

"Drones!" John said spinning back to face McKay. "They fired drones at us. That means the chair is active and powered."

"What, you wanna fire drones at the city? We're no where near the chair!" McKay exclaimed.

"Zian will be ," John said gravely.

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Kai felt like she could hardly breathe being in such the close quarters with Sheppard. Half of her concentration was on holding the Bond closed as tightly as possible the entire time. The strain was making it difficult for her to concentrate and once she was alone she felt like she could think again. She ran through the city, choosing back halls and maintenance hatches to avoid detection. She managed to swap out all three trays herself before a subtle vibration started beneath her feet. She frowned, swinging around in confusion before she realized what had happened.

"The star drive," she muttered to herself in disbelief.

Her radio activated a few moments later. "Zian, are you there?" Sheppard's voice came over her radio and it was like all the air had been sucked out of the room.

She had to swallow twice before she could answer. "I'm here," she said and was proud her voice actually sounded as detached as she had hoped.

"Kai, I need you to get down to the chair. They're trying to activate the star drive."

"Do you want me to take control of it or damage it?" Kai asked cooly.

There was a long pause as though John were considering her question. "Damage it," he finally said. "We don't have time for anything else."

"Understood Colonel," Kai said briskly as she turned to head towards the chair room.

"You may have to fight your way in," John continued.

"I can assure you, I can handle it," Kai clipped off.

"Use your ARG sparingly or they'll build up immunity."

"I do understand how that works."

"You may have to go to..." John's vice dragged off. "Plan B."

"And which one is that Colonel?" Kai couldn't help taking a jab at the Colonel. Her question hung in the air between them and she wanted to bite her tongue. Would he think she had been flirting? She hadn't meant to, but things had always been so easy with John. She couldn't let herself fall back into that trap.

"Just get going," Sheppard snapped back but there was no malice in his voice.

"I'm already here," Kai told him and the chair room door slid open. She fired her ARG at the two replicators before they could even take a step towards her. She lowered the ARG and marched over to the chair. She sat and reclined it, reaching for the connection immediately.

It had been a long time since she had telepathically connected with Atlantis' systems. It came so suddenly she didn't realize she had allowed her other walls to open as well. Distantly she felt the warmth of her connection with John opening a small amount. It felt like stepping into a warm spring after being cold for so long. She forced herself to focus on the problem at hand, shoving all thoughts of John Sheppard from her mind.

Kai drew on four drones and sent them down through the water where they hit the star drive. A shudder ran through the city and the drive shut down. She began assessing the damage, making note of the repairs that would need to happen in the future. The amount of power available with so many ZPM's was incredible.

She heard the click of boots coming down the hall and jumped to her feet. She instinctively raised her ARG and it took all the self control she had not to fire as the six Replicators rushed the room. She lifted the gun, but didn't pull the trigger. She hoped she wasn't making a mistake trusting John that they would want to keep them alive. In the next moment the Replicators stun hit her in the center of her chest and she dropped to the ground. 

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John had felt the moment Kai's death grip on the Bond slipped and he felt like he could take a deep breath. It was a fight to keep the relief off his face. He could feel her concentration and focus but mostly he could just feel her. A few moments later he felt a slight wave on dizziness that he knew was Kai.

"They stunned Kai," he told McKay.

"And we're done," McKay said triumphantly sliding the crystal tray back in.

The two of them turned just as six replicators appeared, pointing their weapons in their face. "And I was so sure we were going to survive this one," John muttered.

"Me too," McKay said in a weak voice.

"Move," The Replicator growled.

They took John's weapons and stripped off his tac vest before shoving him towards the cell. They kicking the back of his knee, spilling him to the floor. Which John thought seemed a little petty for the supposedly superior and entirely reason based Replicators.

"Bring the ones from the other cell," One of the replicators ordered behind them.

John groaned as he climbed to his feet. "Everyone okay?" he asked, although his eyes were already where Kai was slumped on the bench. He frowned but Beckett was sitting beside her with his fingers on her wrist, monitoring her pulse.

"She was stunned," Beckett informed him, carefully setting Kai's arm back down on her stomach. "As was Ronon, he just woke a few minutes ago. I expect her to wake in the next ten minutes," he said.

"The rest of us are well," Teyla reported when John glanced towards them. "None of us were stunned," she explained.

Ronon snorted as though he thought that was a bad thing but didn't say whatever he was thinking. "Why aren't we dead yet?"He asked instead, rubbing his aching head.

"Probably saving us for some recreational mind probing," John said grimly. "Did everyone complete their..." he started to say.

"We completed our task," Teyla said with a nod.

"So did we," Elizabeth agreed, glancing over her shoulder at Ronon. "In the knick of time."

"So we just don't know about Kai's-"

"I got all three of them," Kai mumbled with a groan as she woke. She hurt, but she could feel the warm pulse of the Bond in her chest and it was enough for her to jerk all the way awake. She slammed it closed, ignoring John's flinch and forced herself to sit up.

"That's all of them then," McKay said in relief. "Just under the wire."

The shield dropped as the cell door slid open. Two Replicators came in shoving Woolsey and O'Neill into the cell. John stepped forward so he was facing the lead Replicator.

"Did you really think you could stop us?" The Replicator challenged.

"Of course we did. Why else would we be here?" John asked with a confident smirk he didn't feel.

"Colonel," O'Neill called from the back of the cell. "Am I going to have to fire you?"

"No sir, I think you'll have that to look forward to when we get back," John said turning to give him a nod.

"I'm afraid your plan has been discovered Colonel Sheppard. It is over."

Everyone in the cell turned to look at Woolsey. Woolsey turned and set his jaw defensively at the glares from the others. "He put his hand in my forehead. How can you resist that?"

"Well, I like to close my eyes and think of England," O'Neill snarked.

"Mr. Woolsey informed us of everything we needed to know. All of your C4 had been removed from the emitters. I'm afraid they won't be destroyed when the Daedalus arrives, which should be at any moment. Your plan has failed." The replicator pulled a brick of c4 out of a small bag and held it out as though to taunt Colonel Sheppard.

"Talus," the Replicator's radio activated. "The Daedalus is appproaching the planet."

"As expected," Talus said smuggly. "Activate the shield."

A slow smug smile tugged at Sheppard's lips.

Talus froze, frowning in concern for exactly one second before he disintegrated into a pile of metal shards at Sheppard's feet. He was quickly followed by the other five Replicators who had stood in the doorway.

Woolsey and O'Neill both looked up in surprise but Sheppard grinned triumphantly.

"It worked! I can't believe it worked!" McKay exlaimed.

"Rodney, Kai, amazing," Weir said warmly.

"It was a group effort," McKay allowed with false modesty.

"Good ole Plan D, works every time," Sheppard said with a relieved laugh. "You guys stay here for a second while we make sure it's all clear. Ronon, Kai," he said and he, Kai and Ronon jogged out the door.

The whole hall was filled with the same shards of metal. The control room was eerily silent, the only noise was the crunching of the metal beneath their boots. "All right, we're clear. Ronon, get the others," Sheppard ordered. Ronon jogged out of the room and he turned to Kai. "Can you get me a channel to the Daedalus please?"

Kai stepped up to one of the main terminals with a frown. She began working her way through the Replicators encryption. They were paranoid, but both she and Mckay had installed plenty of backdoors into the programs. She used one of Zelenka's and suddenly the terminal lit up and Atlantis was at her finger tips just as the others came into the room.

"You've got it," she told him with a nod.

"Daedalus come in," Sheppard called, hoping someone would pick up on the other end. It would really suck to be vaporized by a nuk right after saving everyone.

"Colonel, I'd like to believe this is you," Colonel Caldwell said warily.

"Well it is," John said. "Authentication code Alpha Delta Charlie Niner Six."

"That code is no longer valid Colonel," Caldwell replied.

John's expression flattened and his eyes went to Kai's. The only person who could invalidate his code was Landry at Stargate Command. It seemed Landry was standing by his word and the very letter of O'Neill's orders after all.

"Hey Caldwell, General Jack O'Neill here, that valid enough for you?" O'Neill sounded grumpy to all of their ears and only a fool would push him when he was upset.

"You may have been compromised, sir," Caldwell said tightly, although he didn't sound as resolute as he had when he was speaking to Sheppard. John tried not to take that personally.

Weir sighed tiredly. "We're lowering the cities shields, Steven. You can send a team down to check us out if you need to. We'll explain everything."

Kai lifted her eyes and met John's who nodded once, agreeing with Weir's decision. Despite her anger, she wouldn't have complied without John's agreement. Kai moved her hands across the terminal and lowered the shield.  If Caldwell decided to stick to the original orders they were all dead.

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Hope you enjoyed the update!