Hello all thank you so much for reading, I hope you're enjoying the story!

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Thirty-Eight Minutes
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"Doctor Zelenka come in," Kai could hear Weir's voice clearly through Zelenka's personal comm.

The two had been working in Zelenka's lab on maximizing the generators output all day. After the debacle yesterday in the mess hall, Kai was happy to hide away from everyone and focus on work. She knew she was here on borrowed time and she didn't want to draw any unnecessary attention to herself.

The tone in Weir's voice however made her think something serious had happened.

"Yes this is Doctor Zelenka," the scientist responded touching his ear to activate his radio.

Although Kai was sitting three feet away, she could hear Doctor Weir's voice as clearly as though the comm were in her own ear. "Doctor we have an emeregency. Jumper one has become lodged in the stargate with one of it's drivepods still extended. It's aft section has crossed the event horizon. I would like you and several others to meet in the conference room to work this problem."

"Understood,' Zelenka replied.

Kai had already snapped her laptop shut and stood ready to assist in whatever way she could.

Zelenka pushed his glasses back up his nose nervously. "C-Come with me," he stammered turning towards the door.

"But she said-" Kai started to argue.

"Doesn't matter," Zelenka said. He hurried to the transporter and when the doors opened into the jumper bay instead of the gate room, Kai frowned at him. It was very unlike Zelenka to go against orders. It was one of the things she enjoyed most about working with the quiet scientist. He was nothing if not predictable.

"We have less than half an hour before the worm hole closes," was his only explanation. His hands were practically dancing in the air in agitation. "I need one of those down." He said motioning to the jumpers that were still in storage position. "Quickly please," he said his accent thicker with stress.

Quickly understanding Kai climbed up the ladder without further hesitation. She had moved jumpers around the hanger before. Since they discovered she had the gene Zelenka had slowly been introducing her to all different kinds of technology she might encounter in the city. It had been so long since she flew anything, and even just moving their small shuttles around the hanger was better than nothing.

She expertly dropped the jumper into position in the middle of the bay and opened the rear hatch. By the time she shut down the controls Zelenka already had the circuit doors open on both sides and was plugging in his tablet.

"I need you to connect," he muttered tossing another cord towards her.

Kai caught it one handed and plugged in. She set her laptop on the seat below where he was working and dropped down to sit on the ground as he began testing relays.

Her computer was pulled straight into his program. It began mapping the pathways automatically building a schematic from his work.

"Once this is mapped-" Zelenka broke off into a string of what Kai had been told was Czech, his native tongue. After a few moments he refocused and glanced down at her. "Please make sure every pathway is mapped. If we miss a single one-"

"Understood," Kai replied briskly without looking up.

Ten minutes later Doctor Weir stepped through the bay doors. "Doctor Zelenka," she called.

"We're in here!" Kai called loudly enough for the other woman to hear her.

When Doctor Weir stepped into the shuttle Zelenka addresses her without looking up. "Apologies for not attending your briefing Doctor Weir. There is no time."

Kai glanced up at Weir. She wasn't a fan of being on the ground at the other woman's feet, but now wasn't the time to allow herself to be ruled by old instincts. Time was of the essence and she was honesty curious how Weir was going to respond to Zelenka ignoring a direct order. On her home world the offense wouldn't have been tolerated.

Weir looked annoyed but she stayed out of their way. "I don't want to slow you down, but I need to know what you're working on so I can communicate to the team of Jumper One."

Zelenka sighed and muttered in Czech. Kai pushed herself up on her knees. Zelenka's work took longer than hers. Backlogging a couple pathways as they loaded into the schematics wouldn't hurt anything and she could easily catch up. If Zelenka stopped the people in the shuttle lost time.

"We are attempting to retract the drivepods from inside the rear compartment," Kai explained succinctly.

"Anything yet?" Weir demanded authoritatively.

Zelenka looked down at her sharing the annoyance Kai kept off her own face. If they had something they would have already reported their success and certainly wouldn't still be there.

Zelenka shoved his glasses further up his nose. "There's much redundancy in ancient technology. Making it dangerous for them to experiment in this way."

Elizabeth looked confused and before she could open her mouth Kai spoke up again hoping to stop Zelenka from being distracted. "They could accidentally open the rear hatch or turn off life support. Which is why we are attempting to isolate the correct control pathway."

"Understood," Elizabeth nodded to Kai in appreciation. She knew the young woman had been helping Zelenka but she hadn't realized the extent of her expertise. "What can I do to help?"

Zelenka looked up from his work one more time. "Stop talking please."

Instead of being offended Weir nodded briskly and without comment left the shuttle.

Zelenka's program had set up a small clock at the bottom of Kai's screen and the angry red numbers were slipping away from them. Ten minutes went by as she worked fastidiously to input Zelenka's rapid code.

"There!" Zelenka exclaimed excitedly. He jumped off his stool and fumbled for his radio. "Doctor Zelenka to the control room. I think I have something," he tapped loudly against his touch pad. "I have sent the correct control pathway. Get that to Rodney as quickly as possible."

"Understood," Weir's voice came back over the comm.

"So now what?" Kai asked.

"We head back up to the gate room, see if there is anything else we can do. Just because we have the pathway doesn't mean we know the relay. It narrows it down by a factor of perhaps a thousand."

The two of them stepped off the transport just as Weir was speaking. "I'm sorry, what's going on with the Major?" She and Beckett were standing together at the main control station.

"Some sort of bug has attached itself to his neck and seems to be feeding on him similar to a wraith," Lieutenant Fords voice crackled back through.

Zelenka and Kai were passing when Kai hesitated. "An Iratus bug?" she asked frowning at Weir and Beckett.

Beckett's head snapped towards her. "What was that?"

"It sounds like an iratus bug," Kai shirked slightly as the control rooms attention was turned towards them. Zelenka continued to move towards the conference room leaving her with the Doctor.

Doctor Weir moved towards her shoving a radio onto her face. "Ford, you need to answer Kai's questions, she might now something about the bug."

"Lieutenant Ford," Kai spoke tentatively into the radio.

"Kai," he replied briskly. She could hear the stress in the young man's voice.

"The Iratus bug is about the size of two men's hands. It has pinchers that attach to the hosts neck. It's dark blue with an orange underbelly." Kai quickly recalled everything she could remember of the deadly bugs.

Ford exhaled in relief. "Yes ma'am, that sounds like our guy. So how do we get it off of him?"

Kai's face fell and both Beckett and Weir saw her dismay as everyone in the room turned to her for answers. "I don't know." she said honestly. "They were on my planet in caves mostly. They draw energy from their victims...they're fast...They hate salt water. That's how we managed to keep them away. Or cleared out a cave."

"Salt water," she heard Lieutenant Ford mutter.

A few seconds went by and the Major's screams filled the control room. Kai flinched as his pain filled her head. With the comm directly in her ear it was almost painful. She gritted her teeth and took it however knowing it was nothing compared to the pain the Major was in. She heard a crack and something large fell on their end.

"It reacted to the salt water," Ford reported a few moments later. He was panting.

Beckett leaned forward, resting his palms against the control panel. "Did it loosen it's hold on Major Sheppard?"

"Negative, if anything it dug in deeper."

"Please don't do that again," Sheppard's voice was shaking with pain as it came weakly through the comm.

"I won't sir, I'm sorry," Ford replied. "Any other good ideas Kai?" Ford asked tightly.

"No," Kai muttered.

Beckett gave her hand an encouraging squeeze and Kai resisted the urge to pull away from being touched.

With the comm directly in her ear Kai was able to hear some of the smaller sounds coming through the comm that the others seemed unaware of. She could hear them moving in the shuttle and the occasional click from the Iratus bug.

Weir was back to business but Kai could see that hearing the Major's screams had shaken her. "We haven't come up with anything more on this end, but there's still time. Zelenka has the whole team running the relays as we speak. How is Major Sheppard?"

"I'm still here," he called back coughing. "Listen, ah I'd like to say something while I still can."

Weir's eyes widened and turned almost frantically towards Doctor Beckett. "Don't! You're going to get through this."

The Major chuckled humorlessly. "If I was, he wouldn't have let me go."

Weir frowned in confusion. "Who wouldn't have let you go?"

John snorted. "The wraith. I guess he saw me as good as dead because he just walked away so what I wanted to say was-"

"Save your strength John and tell me in person." Weir's voice was strong but Kai could see in the leader's eyes what it cost her. She cared for The Major a great deal. Out of habit Kai quietly filed away that information in case she needed it in the future. Old habits died hard.

Beckett turned to Kai. "Is there anything else you can think of? Anything at all, no matter how innocuous might be helpful."

Kai shook her head in defeat. "The only time I've seen them let go of their host is after it's dead."

Her words had gone over the comm and everyone looked away. There was nothing left they could do to save The Major. Everyone in the room knew it. In less then ten minutes however even that wasn't going to matter.

"Hit me with the defibrillator," John's voice came through the comm strong and sure.

"What?" Weir was incredulous.

Beckett swung his eyes over to Kai, a small smile started pulling at his face as his eyes lit up. "You might just be onto something Major."

"No, that could kill him!" Ford yelled into the ear piece.

Kai flinched and pulled it away from her ear. Beckett frown at her in concern but she ignored it. The last thing she wanted was to draw attention to it.

"That's the idea," Sheppard growled back.

"How is that an idea?" Weir demanded, her eyes flashing over to where Beckett and Kai stood together.

Beckett turned back to Weir. "What we're suggesting is fooling the creature into thinking it's prey is dead by stopping the Major's heart. If what Kai says is true, it should let him go."

Through the comm Kai could hear them moving in the shuttle once more. She hear things opening and shifting. "So when the thing lets him go we give him another jolt," Ford said after a moment.

"Aye you can give it a try. If it doesn't work you send him through the event horizon. He'll keep there as good as a deep freeze," Beckett said with a shrug.

There was a long moment as everyone considered the possible ramifications. Kai tightened her grip on the railing in front of her. They were doing all of this off her word. She pinched her eyes shut. She hadn't seen the bugs since she was a child, she only hoped she wasn't miss remembering. The Major's life depended on it.

"John are you sure you want to do this?" Weir asked, her voice rising with tension.

"I want this damn thing off me."

Beckett reached up and changed the station on his radio. "I need a team down to the jumper bay. Prepared for a code blue." He touched it again switching back over. "Lieutenant Ford do you know how to do this?"

There was only a second of grim silence before the young soldiers determined voice came back on. "Yes sir."

Kai could hear muffled movement through the comm. The voices weren't as clear and she wondered if she was hearing them through The Major's comm while the others had switched theirs off.

"Cut his shirt open...Charging to 200."

The high pitched whine of the charging machine filled her ears.

"Move his tags."

Beckett's body was tense beside her. "Place lubrication right on the paddles," Kai nearly jumped with how loud Beckett's voice came right beside her after she had strained to hear even the smallest movement.

Ford clicked his radio back on. "Ready to go. Once the bug falls off, I'll have to kill it. I'll wait for it to charge up again and give him another jolt. McKay, if I can't restart his heart on the first try I'm going to need that bulkhead door open again."

"Done," It was the first thing Kai had heard from Doctor McKay which surprised her. The normally arrogant Doctor was usually quite vocal, but the clock was ticking and even if the others managed to save The Major it would all come down to him. Kai didn't envy the man, it made her grateful for maybe the first time that her caste had always worked alone.

"One of us is going to have to take him through."

"I will," Teyla's voice came through the channel resolute.

There was a pause then, when even Kai couldn't hear anything over the comms. She couldn't imagine what it must be like in the shuttle.

"DO IT!" Sheppard bellowed and she heard the snap as the electricity discharged.

"No pulse." Ford reported his agitation rising. If this didn't work, he had effectively killed his commanding officer.

"IT WON'T COME OFF!" Teyla called desperately.

Beckett drew in a calming breath before he spoke, as though he could calm them from the distance. "Settle, it may take a moment."

"Lietenant," Weir warned.

Then there was nothing again. Kai flinched as gunshots echoed in the radio. She looked around for the base of the radio to turn it down but she didn't know who had given her their earpiece.

Beckett frowned at herSeeming oblivious to what she had heard. "What's happening?" he asked briskly.

Kai's eyes flashed to him. She hadn't told anyone here, if fact she had worked hard to conceal how much stronger her senses seemed to be than anyone else, but the doctor somehow seemed to know anyway. She glanced at him warily, but the determination glittering in his gaze wasn't something she could ignore. She covered the mouthpiece of her comm. She didn't need everyone in the room to hear what she was saying. 

"Gunshots," she whispered. A moment later she heard the faint beeping and then the hard jolt of electricity. "Defibrillator," she reported.  

"Nothing," Ford reported after a tense moment. "Let's get him through."

Beckett's eyes went back to Kai. "They're moving him I think. There's a lot of motion. I think that was the gate-"

"This is Lietenant Ford, the creature has been successfully removed from Major Sheppard but we were unable to revive him. Both he and Teyla are on the other side of the event horizon."

"Thank you Lieutenant," Weir said briskly. She looked down at the laptop in front of her. "Rodney. You have seven minutes."

Kai turned away from Beckett to where Zelenka was working with the other scientists. She pulled out the earpiece and offered it back to Beckett. "I think that's all I can do," she said in a low voice.

Beckett turned off his own radio for a moment before he took the earpiece from her with gentle fingers. "You did a great deal." he told her. "Thank you. You probably saved the Major's life."

Kai frowned at the idea. "The Major isn't out of the woods yet."

"No," Beckett agreed. "But I can handle a code Blue. The Major is one of the strongest men I know. He'll fight for it."

Kai nodded and excused herself quietly to return to Doctor Zelenka's side. Zelenka was working on his tablet. Without looking up he shoved her laptop towards her. "I'm running the command code pathway relay probability for zero-one-four to nine-eight-five-two. Please begin at nine-eight-five-three. See if we can give Rodney any more help."

Kai quickly opened her computer and began running each simulation as quickly as possible. It was unlikely any of them would land on the right one, but if the group of seven continued to run it they just might land on the correct one before McKay either found it himself or ran out of time. Kai was no scientist, but she was painfully aware the odds were not in their favor.

Standing so close to Zelenka Kai was able to hear the continued conversation nearly as well as when she had been wearing the borrowed comm, but she turned her entire focus to running her simulations.

"Don't be so methodical just pick one at random," Weir commanded.

"If I do that I'll run the risk of attempting to activate the same circuit twice and overlapping the work there," McKay's voice was rising with tension with each passing second.

"Just try!"

"I'm telling you-" McKay snarled authoritatively. "Wait!" McKay's voice came through.

Kai missed having the advantage of hearing what else was going on in the shuttle.

"I think I did it! Elizabeth I think the engine pods retracted."

Kai breathed a sigh of relief. Everyone's eyes turned to the stargate. Long seconds passed and nothing happened.

"Then why haven't you shown up?" Weir asked desperately. The clock continued to count down ominously in the bottom corner of Kai's screen.

"She's right, why aren't we moving," Ford's voice was grave and muffled.

Zelenka turned to Kai, his eyes were distant as his thoughts raced.

"Inertia. The drive shut down before we went in the stargate-" Rodney began the complicated explanation but Zelenka snapped his head to Kai.

"We need to get them moving," he said gravely.

Doctor Kavanagh leaned forward, attempting to regain control of the room after Zelenka had taken over. "They should activate the drive pods again for a moment and then-"

Zelenka silenced Doctor Kavanagh with a severe look. Kai tried not to look pleased. She couldn't stand the egotistical scientist.

"And run the risk of not being able to retract them again?" Zelenka asked in disbelief.

Kavanagh grunted. "Well how exactly do you propose they activate the engine to get moving?"

Kai sucked in a breath and turned to Zelenka her eyes wide. "They don't need the engines," she muttered wondering if her idea was just crazy enough to work.

"That's the stupidest thing-" Kavanagh started to rage.

"Shut up please," Zelenka said to Kavanagh and turned to Kai. "Yes?"

Kai sniffed, it were her on the shuttle she wouldn't hesitate to do it, but these were other people's lives. "If they blow the rear hatch they-"

Zelenka pointed at her nodding profusely. He touched his ear piece. "Blow the rear hatch Rodney, it will give you enough thrust to make it across the event horizon."

"That might work," McKay hedged.

Kai wanted to swear at the stubborn man. It was the only option and they were running out of time. The angry red numbers were counting down to zero.

"You go through, I'll blow it," Ford's voice was resolute.

"You can't do that," McKay argued. "You'll get blown into space."

"No, no there's no time to argue, just go."

Zelenka touched his ear piece again. "Hold onto something Lieutenant Ford," he advised calmly.

"Thanks Doc," Ford's voice was gruff and then there was nothing.

It was only seconds but it felt like hours until the nose of the jumper appeared through the gate. It slid slowly into the room on autopilot to the sounds of cheers. Beckett and Weir both ran up the stairs towards the jumper bay as the jumper disappeared through the bay door. 

Zelenka patted Kai on the back and stood.  The other scientists were laughing in relief and started to disburse discussing what they were going to do to unwind for the rest of the day. Kavanagh shot Kai a dirty look before leaving. Zelenka quietly slid his tablet under his arm and moved to the stairs. Kai followed him up into the jumper bay.

The two of them stood against the wall out of everyone's way as they wheeled Lieutenant Ford away with an oxygen mask over his face.

Inside the jumper Kai could hear them working over the Major. She could hear the high pitched whine of the defibrillator and the resounding crack as the electricity entered his body. Finally, the steady hum of his heart monitor changed to intermittent beeps.

"I've got a pulse," Beckett reported. "He's going to be okay."

She could hear everyone's sighs of relief. They all stayed in the shuttle until the gurney came back to wheel the Major away. The other's followed like an honor guard as they wheeled him towards the infirmary. Beckett was calling out orders as he led the procession through the hall.

Weir was the last one to step out of the jumper. The stress of the day and her relief that everyone was okay showed on her face. She seemed surprised to see Kai and Zelenka standing together. She moved over to them.

"Thank you," she told Zelenka, then she turned to Kai. "Both of you. Without your work..." she shook her head as though she didn't even want to consider it. Weir drew in a deep breath and smiled at them both. "Well you have certainly earned the rest of the day off."

Zelenka motioned towards the jumper. "We don't yet know if it was mechanical failure or if the pods were damaged. We have work to do."

Weir shook her head. "That can wait we-"

"With all do respect," Zelenka interrupted briskly. "We have missions running every day, several teams off world who depend on the jumpers...we can't afford to wait. If it was a mechanical failure-"

Weir nodded. "I understand. Thank you." She turned to Kai looking as though she were going to talk her out of it.

"I'm with him," Kai said and she followed Doctor Zelenka to the damaged shuttle.

"I'll run internal diagnostics," he called to her.

"I've got external," Kai responded and the two of them settled in to work in companionable silence.

As she worked Kai realized this might be the first day something she had done had actively saved lives instead of take them. Everyone here had worked together as a team to save their people. It was strangely satisfying to know she had contributed in some way. She could get used to this.

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