FIC: Mind Over Matter (Chapter Five)
Summary: John starts to exhibit some unusual abilities after returning through the time dilation field.
SPOILERS: Epiphany
Rating: PG
Chapter Four is here
“John?”
“Yes, Rodney?”
“That pencil is hanging in mid-air.”
Behind him, John heard the pencil clatter to the floor. “No, it isn’t,” he said pleasantly.
“Now it’s on the floor,” said Rodney in a voice that suggested he was questioning his own sanity.
John couldn’t resist the cocky grin that quirked up one corner of his mouth. “And you call me the master of the blatantly obvious.”
Rodney scowled and crossed his arms over his chest in a familiar gesture. “And how long have you had this particular skill?” he demanded.
“How do you know it’s me?” John protested.
“The minute you turn your attention away from it, the pencil falls. Who else could it be? Chaya?”
“Cute, Rodney.” Then he gave up trying to deny it. “Jeez, I don’t even believe in this sort of thing! I mean, I like the Star Wars trilogy as much as the next guy... well, the first trilogy anyway. The second one sucked. Lucas can’t write dialogue for crap...”
Rodney interrupted. “You’re stalling. Won’t work.”
John sighed. “Doesn’t this defy the laws of physics or something? Newton’s second law?”
The Canadian was unimpressed. “Oh, good. You paid attention during your ‘Physics for Poets’ class. Nice try, but no. You need to think in terms of quantum physics rather than classical physics.”
“I don’t want to think about it at all!”
Rodney shrugged. “It was a gross oversimplification, anyway. My point is that telekinesis isn’t impossible. We’ve seen it before.” At John’s raised eyebrow, he continued. “It’s from SG-1’s mission reports. Cassandra Frasier, daughter of the SGC’s late CMO. She was experimented on by a Goa’uld.”
“Goa’uld?”
“Never mind. The kid had her DNA manipulated, and when she hit puberty she started shorting out electrical appliances and playing ‘hands-free’ chess.”
“Hello, I’m a little past puberty!” John practically yelled.
“Not according to your recent track record with Ascended women,” Rodney smirked back. “This started right after we got home, didn’t it? That’s why you wanted to know what the time dilation field could do to you.”
“Well?”
“Well, what?”
“Could exposure to the time dilation field have done this to me?” John sounded both exasperated and a little nervous.
“I have absolutely no idea.” Rodney grabbed John’s arm and started pulling him towards the door.
“Um. Where are we going?” John asked the question mildly enough, but there was an edge to his voice.
“Our sheep-shearing colleague in the infirmary would probably be better able to answer your question than I would. His vast collection of useless facts may include something that could shed some light on your situation.”
John dug in his heels. “Are you kidding? Carson already sent me a memo discussing new testing for “space STDs.” I don’t want the man getting any other ideas! Especially since he hasn’t cleared me for active duty yet.”
Rodney started laughing. “Space STDs?” he chortled. “Oh, that’s really good. Admit it, you brought it on yourself.”
John smiled sweetly. “First of all, it’s for all of us, not just me. Secondly, do you know how they test for STDs? They take a little swab and stick it...”
“Aaagh, stop! That’s leaving me with an image of your depraved past that I never want to think about again.” Rodney looked like he was about to shudder. “Fine, you don’t want to see Carson. I get it. But we need to learn something about this new ability of yours. I’ll figure something out.”
“Oh, you will, huh?” John wasn’t sure he wanted Rodney to get excited about this. Even before Duranda, an enthusiastic Rodney usually led to something blowing up and/or someone getting hurt in an inventive way. Unfortunately, John didn’t think he had a choice. He didn’t think for a minute that the astrophysicist had come down here on his own initiative. Someone had sent him to check up -- Elizabeth or Carson. Heck, it could have even been Ronon. The ex-Runner was developing annoyingly overprotective tendencies. Regardless of who it was, though, any refusal on John’s part would only lead to threats and coercion.
From the triumphant grin on his face, John knew that Rodney had guessed what he was thinking. “Fine,” he grumbled. “But the first time you electrocute me, I’m leaving.” He rather hoped that Rodney would be leaving now. His head was starting to hurt.
“Relax, you big baby. You’ll be fine.” Rodney walked to the door, then stopped and shook his head. “Your Captain Kirk routine is really coming back to bite you in the ass… um, so to speak.” As the door closed behind him, the pencil smacked into it.
“Stop doing that!” John yelled.
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John still had a throbbing headache the next morning. When he arrived at the scheduled briefing, the sight of Sergeant Bates didn’t make it any better. Instead of mellowing after his life-threatening injuries, the man had become even more of a stickler. John was out of practice after six months and didn’t feel like butting heads today.
There were only two seats left at the table, one at the end next to Carson and the other between Teyla and Major Lorne. John hesitated, then took the latter. They would be less likely to notice or comment if he gave away any signs of his headache. Hopefully, though, it would soon become a moot point when the illicit Tylenol he had taken kicked in. Infirmary rules prevented anyone from keeping private medication supplies -- Beckett and his staff wanted to know about any symptoms that could potentially signal an outbreak -- but John had swiped a bottle during his long convalescence from the retrovirus. Bottom line: he didn’t want anything preventing him from being cleared for active duty. He was just itching to fly again.
As usual, Rodney was several minutes late. John hid a grin as the scientist rushed into the room, trying to balance a stack of papers, his laptop, and a cup of coffee without dropping anything. Elizabeth also tried not to smile, and even Ronon looked amused. “Good morning, Dr. McKay,” Elizabeth said as Rodney breathlessly slid into the seat next to Carson. Rodney flushed, started to cover it with bluster, then settled for just shrugging. “All right, let’s get started. First of all, I’m glad to say that we all returned from our recent mission none the worse for wear.”
“Aye,” Carson chimed in. “Naught but minor trauma from fighting with the beastie. I’ll even be clearin’ the Colonel soon, unless I find that he’s hiding something from me again.” He fixed John with a reproachful stare, which was returned with an innocent smile.
The physician snorted. “A paragon of good behavior,” he muttered.
Elizabeth jumped in and played diplomat. “Thank you, Carson. Major Lorne, anything to make us aware of while Colonel Sheppard is waiting to return to work?”
“No, ma’am!” Lorne said crisply. “Nothing new to report.” Elizabeth thanked him, too, and proceeded to the next person. Predictably, everything seemed routine until they got to Rodney.
“You want to do what?!” John yelped.
“It’s no big deal!” Rodney protested. “We need to maintain the database, and this is the only way to do it without an unacceptable risk to its integrity.” Elizabeth didn’t look surprised, so John figured Rodney must have given her the explanation earlier.
“I don’t like it,” Bates said bluntly.
“No, of course not,” Rodney retorted.
Bates continued as if the interruption hadn’t happened. “The loss of the security systems will mean placing guards at points of vulnerability. We’ll have to cover the ZPM, the naquadah generators, the armory, and the control room. That alone is going to take a significant amount of manpower. If we want to cover secondary sites such as food storage, water purification, and the viral labs, then we’ll be overextended. With short- and long-range sensors down, that’s just asking for trouble.”
Carson looked uncomfortable at the mention of his retrovirus work. Elizabeth also frowned, but for a different reason. “It’s only going to be for a few hours, according to Dr. McKay’s estimates. Is all of this really necessary?”
“Yes, ma’am. Leaving any of those areas unprotected, no matter for how long, presents a risk.” Bates glared at a familiar target of his hostility. “Even without most of the Athosians, there are too many new people whose intentions are unknown.”
Teyla bristled and gave a low growl of disgust. Exasperated, John said, “Sergeant, most of the people you’re talking about are military personnel who came on the Daedalus! If there were a conspiracy to destroy the city -- and there’d have to be one for any coordinated plan to work -- don’t you think we’d have some inkling of it? Landry’s intelligence is pretty good.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” answered Bates. “Besides, no offense to Dr. McKay, but things don’t always go smoothly when Ancient technology is involved.”
“I beg your pardon! I know exactly what I’m doing!” Rodney’s face started to turn red.
“I’m not saying you don’t,” Bates responded, although his expression indicated otherwise. “But you yourself have seen stuff not work when you think it’s going to. How about an electromagnetic shield on M7G-677? Or a jumper that got lodged in a Stargate after only moderate weapons fire?”
“Especially now, we are never going to mention that again.” John thought he said it softly enough, but Rodney raised an eyebrow and Carson gave him a rueful smile.
Elizabeth had been looking back and forth at the speakers, but now she interrupted firmly. “Dr. McKay has convinced me of the need to do the database repairs. So what we need to do is figure out a way to do it with minimal risk and maximal preservation of daily routine.”
“I’d at least suspend gate travel,” suggested John.
Teyla spoke up. “Do not forget the trading mission a few of my people were going to carry out. Halling will be disappointed if we cannot go, and I believe we need the produce and seeds the Cereans can offer. They also have a beverage similar to the coffee that Dr. McKay likes so much.”
No one could argue against that. The discussion continued for awhile longer, then Elizabeth requested that Bates and John submit a formal list of recommendations. “Unless anyone has anything else to report, I think we’re done.”
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“Colonel!”
John winced as Rodney’s voice caused his head to throb viciously. The headache, which had subsided somewhat during the briefing, returned with a vengeance when he got up to leave. Unfortunately, it appeared that Rodney was not going to forget their conversation of the day before.
John slowed his pace to allow the physicist to fall into step with him. “I thought of something after I left last night, so I went to the lab to set it up... hey, are you okay?”
“Yes, Rodney, I’m fine.”
Rodney snorted. “Is that fine as in ‘I’m feeling quite well, thank you,’ or fine as in ‘I’m lying my ass off and hoping you don’t notice’?”
John smiled faintly. “If one of the options involves lying my ass off, what makes you think I’ll be telling the truth now?” He held up a hand to forestall the inevitable outburst. “I have a bit of a headache, but it’s no big deal.”
“You sure?” Rodney waved his own hands around. “I’d hate to be responsible for ruining any brain cells.”
“McKay!”
“All right, all right,” Rodney led John into one of the labs that John had assumed was empty. He looked dubiously at a mess of equipment and wires that covered one entire lab bench. Next to it were a dozen small marbles.
“Get into a fight with your interior decorator again?”
“I’m sure someone somewhere would find that funny, Colonel. Keep trying, though. It’s not me.” Rodney looked at the setup. “Admittedly it looks a bit primitive, but it should help us figure out how you do… whatever it is that you do. So!” he clapped his hands together briskly. “See that metal plate over there on the wall? Fling a marble at it.”
John shook his head. “I don’t have control of this ability. If I did, you really think I would have let you see a flying pencil?”
“You don’t? You said the others did.”
“They were trying to Ascend their entire lives. I was only there for six months. And I admit that I… may have let my mind wander during some of the meditation sessions.”
“You mean you fell asleep,” said Rodney.
“That, and I also ran football plays through my head,” John replied, grinning.
“Typical. All right, let’s see.” Rodney began to pace up and down the length of the lab. “How do I teach someone to use a skill he shouldn’t even have?”
“What makes you automatically think you can?”
“Hello, genius, remember?”
“You’ll never let me forget it!” John retorted.
“Shut up for a minute,” Rodney said suddenly, snapping his fingers rapidly. “How did you learn to fly a puddlejumper?”
John was confused. “You were there. The thing just responded to my thoughts, almost before I even knew I was having them.” He firmly shoved aside the memory of a turkey sandwich and an enthusiastic young 2IC. He’d make himself crazy if he kept dwelling on Ford.
“But it doesn’t respond to every thought you have, right? Otherwise the thing would be going around in circles from contradictory input. So why does it respond to certain thoughts and not others?”
John pondered that for a minute. “Yeah, I think I see what you’re getting at. It’s like there’s one part of my mind that’s piloting while the rest does other things. Kinda like... walking and chewing gum at the same time!”
Rodney rolled his eyes. “Yes, Professor. Maybe telekinetic functioning works the same way. That’s why things only start to move when you don’t concentrate directly on them.”
John shrugged. “Maybe. It’s as good an explanation as any, considering that no one’s seriously thought about this before.”
“You’d be surprised.”
Rodney had John sit on a lab stool while the two of them continued to trade insults. During the conversation, John tried several times without success to keep part of his attention focused on countering Rodney’s quips and part of it trying to move a marble. Only when he visualized the marble moving as it might appear on a puddlejumper heads-up display did he finally make progress.
“Holy crap,” he breathed at the sight of it rolling off the edge of the bench onto the floor. He would have said more, except that a pulse of agony shot through his skull. “OW!” he yelped involuntarily. The pain hadn’t been quite this bad before.
“John?” The astrophysicist looked up and his eyes widened. “What’s happening?”
John opened his mouth to reply, but instead found himself sliding off the stool. The last thing he heard as the room went dark was Rodney yelling for a medical team.
TBC
Chapter Six is here
SPOILERS: Epiphany
Rating: PG
Chapter Four is here
“John?”
“Yes, Rodney?”
“That pencil is hanging in mid-air.”
Behind him, John heard the pencil clatter to the floor. “No, it isn’t,” he said pleasantly.
“Now it’s on the floor,” said Rodney in a voice that suggested he was questioning his own sanity.
John couldn’t resist the cocky grin that quirked up one corner of his mouth. “And you call me the master of the blatantly obvious.”
Rodney scowled and crossed his arms over his chest in a familiar gesture. “And how long have you had this particular skill?” he demanded.
“How do you know it’s me?” John protested.
“The minute you turn your attention away from it, the pencil falls. Who else could it be? Chaya?”
“Cute, Rodney.” Then he gave up trying to deny it. “Jeez, I don’t even believe in this sort of thing! I mean, I like the Star Wars trilogy as much as the next guy... well, the first trilogy anyway. The second one sucked. Lucas can’t write dialogue for crap...”
Rodney interrupted. “You’re stalling. Won’t work.”
John sighed. “Doesn’t this defy the laws of physics or something? Newton’s second law?”
The Canadian was unimpressed. “Oh, good. You paid attention during your ‘Physics for Poets’ class. Nice try, but no. You need to think in terms of quantum physics rather than classical physics.”
“I don’t want to think about it at all!”
Rodney shrugged. “It was a gross oversimplification, anyway. My point is that telekinesis isn’t impossible. We’ve seen it before.” At John’s raised eyebrow, he continued. “It’s from SG-1’s mission reports. Cassandra Frasier, daughter of the SGC’s late CMO. She was experimented on by a Goa’uld.”
“Goa’uld?”
“Never mind. The kid had her DNA manipulated, and when she hit puberty she started shorting out electrical appliances and playing ‘hands-free’ chess.”
“Hello, I’m a little past puberty!” John practically yelled.
“Not according to your recent track record with Ascended women,” Rodney smirked back. “This started right after we got home, didn’t it? That’s why you wanted to know what the time dilation field could do to you.”
“Well?”
“Well, what?”
“Could exposure to the time dilation field have done this to me?” John sounded both exasperated and a little nervous.
“I have absolutely no idea.” Rodney grabbed John’s arm and started pulling him towards the door.
“Um. Where are we going?” John asked the question mildly enough, but there was an edge to his voice.
“Our sheep-shearing colleague in the infirmary would probably be better able to answer your question than I would. His vast collection of useless facts may include something that could shed some light on your situation.”
John dug in his heels. “Are you kidding? Carson already sent me a memo discussing new testing for “space STDs.” I don’t want the man getting any other ideas! Especially since he hasn’t cleared me for active duty yet.”
Rodney started laughing. “Space STDs?” he chortled. “Oh, that’s really good. Admit it, you brought it on yourself.”
John smiled sweetly. “First of all, it’s for all of us, not just me. Secondly, do you know how they test for STDs? They take a little swab and stick it...”
“Aaagh, stop! That’s leaving me with an image of your depraved past that I never want to think about again.” Rodney looked like he was about to shudder. “Fine, you don’t want to see Carson. I get it. But we need to learn something about this new ability of yours. I’ll figure something out.”
“Oh, you will, huh?” John wasn’t sure he wanted Rodney to get excited about this. Even before Duranda, an enthusiastic Rodney usually led to something blowing up and/or someone getting hurt in an inventive way. Unfortunately, John didn’t think he had a choice. He didn’t think for a minute that the astrophysicist had come down here on his own initiative. Someone had sent him to check up -- Elizabeth or Carson. Heck, it could have even been Ronon. The ex-Runner was developing annoyingly overprotective tendencies. Regardless of who it was, though, any refusal on John’s part would only lead to threats and coercion.
From the triumphant grin on his face, John knew that Rodney had guessed what he was thinking. “Fine,” he grumbled. “But the first time you electrocute me, I’m leaving.” He rather hoped that Rodney would be leaving now. His head was starting to hurt.
“Relax, you big baby. You’ll be fine.” Rodney walked to the door, then stopped and shook his head. “Your Captain Kirk routine is really coming back to bite you in the ass… um, so to speak.” As the door closed behind him, the pencil smacked into it.
“Stop doing that!” John yelled.
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John still had a throbbing headache the next morning. When he arrived at the scheduled briefing, the sight of Sergeant Bates didn’t make it any better. Instead of mellowing after his life-threatening injuries, the man had become even more of a stickler. John was out of practice after six months and didn’t feel like butting heads today.
There were only two seats left at the table, one at the end next to Carson and the other between Teyla and Major Lorne. John hesitated, then took the latter. They would be less likely to notice or comment if he gave away any signs of his headache. Hopefully, though, it would soon become a moot point when the illicit Tylenol he had taken kicked in. Infirmary rules prevented anyone from keeping private medication supplies -- Beckett and his staff wanted to know about any symptoms that could potentially signal an outbreak -- but John had swiped a bottle during his long convalescence from the retrovirus. Bottom line: he didn’t want anything preventing him from being cleared for active duty. He was just itching to fly again.
As usual, Rodney was several minutes late. John hid a grin as the scientist rushed into the room, trying to balance a stack of papers, his laptop, and a cup of coffee without dropping anything. Elizabeth also tried not to smile, and even Ronon looked amused. “Good morning, Dr. McKay,” Elizabeth said as Rodney breathlessly slid into the seat next to Carson. Rodney flushed, started to cover it with bluster, then settled for just shrugging. “All right, let’s get started. First of all, I’m glad to say that we all returned from our recent mission none the worse for wear.”
“Aye,” Carson chimed in. “Naught but minor trauma from fighting with the beastie. I’ll even be clearin’ the Colonel soon, unless I find that he’s hiding something from me again.” He fixed John with a reproachful stare, which was returned with an innocent smile.
The physician snorted. “A paragon of good behavior,” he muttered.
Elizabeth jumped in and played diplomat. “Thank you, Carson. Major Lorne, anything to make us aware of while Colonel Sheppard is waiting to return to work?”
“No, ma’am!” Lorne said crisply. “Nothing new to report.” Elizabeth thanked him, too, and proceeded to the next person. Predictably, everything seemed routine until they got to Rodney.
“You want to do what?!” John yelped.
“It’s no big deal!” Rodney protested. “We need to maintain the database, and this is the only way to do it without an unacceptable risk to its integrity.” Elizabeth didn’t look surprised, so John figured Rodney must have given her the explanation earlier.
“I don’t like it,” Bates said bluntly.
“No, of course not,” Rodney retorted.
Bates continued as if the interruption hadn’t happened. “The loss of the security systems will mean placing guards at points of vulnerability. We’ll have to cover the ZPM, the naquadah generators, the armory, and the control room. That alone is going to take a significant amount of manpower. If we want to cover secondary sites such as food storage, water purification, and the viral labs, then we’ll be overextended. With short- and long-range sensors down, that’s just asking for trouble.”
Carson looked uncomfortable at the mention of his retrovirus work. Elizabeth also frowned, but for a different reason. “It’s only going to be for a few hours, according to Dr. McKay’s estimates. Is all of this really necessary?”
“Yes, ma’am. Leaving any of those areas unprotected, no matter for how long, presents a risk.” Bates glared at a familiar target of his hostility. “Even without most of the Athosians, there are too many new people whose intentions are unknown.”
Teyla bristled and gave a low growl of disgust. Exasperated, John said, “Sergeant, most of the people you’re talking about are military personnel who came on the Daedalus! If there were a conspiracy to destroy the city -- and there’d have to be one for any coordinated plan to work -- don’t you think we’d have some inkling of it? Landry’s intelligence is pretty good.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” answered Bates. “Besides, no offense to Dr. McKay, but things don’t always go smoothly when Ancient technology is involved.”
“I beg your pardon! I know exactly what I’m doing!” Rodney’s face started to turn red.
“I’m not saying you don’t,” Bates responded, although his expression indicated otherwise. “But you yourself have seen stuff not work when you think it’s going to. How about an electromagnetic shield on M7G-677? Or a jumper that got lodged in a Stargate after only moderate weapons fire?”
“Especially now, we are never going to mention that again.” John thought he said it softly enough, but Rodney raised an eyebrow and Carson gave him a rueful smile.
Elizabeth had been looking back and forth at the speakers, but now she interrupted firmly. “Dr. McKay has convinced me of the need to do the database repairs. So what we need to do is figure out a way to do it with minimal risk and maximal preservation of daily routine.”
“I’d at least suspend gate travel,” suggested John.
Teyla spoke up. “Do not forget the trading mission a few of my people were going to carry out. Halling will be disappointed if we cannot go, and I believe we need the produce and seeds the Cereans can offer. They also have a beverage similar to the coffee that Dr. McKay likes so much.”
No one could argue against that. The discussion continued for awhile longer, then Elizabeth requested that Bates and John submit a formal list of recommendations. “Unless anyone has anything else to report, I think we’re done.”
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“Colonel!”
John winced as Rodney’s voice caused his head to throb viciously. The headache, which had subsided somewhat during the briefing, returned with a vengeance when he got up to leave. Unfortunately, it appeared that Rodney was not going to forget their conversation of the day before.
John slowed his pace to allow the physicist to fall into step with him. “I thought of something after I left last night, so I went to the lab to set it up... hey, are you okay?”
“Yes, Rodney, I’m fine.”
Rodney snorted. “Is that fine as in ‘I’m feeling quite well, thank you,’ or fine as in ‘I’m lying my ass off and hoping you don’t notice’?”
John smiled faintly. “If one of the options involves lying my ass off, what makes you think I’ll be telling the truth now?” He held up a hand to forestall the inevitable outburst. “I have a bit of a headache, but it’s no big deal.”
“You sure?” Rodney waved his own hands around. “I’d hate to be responsible for ruining any brain cells.”
“McKay!”
“All right, all right,” Rodney led John into one of the labs that John had assumed was empty. He looked dubiously at a mess of equipment and wires that covered one entire lab bench. Next to it were a dozen small marbles.
“Get into a fight with your interior decorator again?”
“I’m sure someone somewhere would find that funny, Colonel. Keep trying, though. It’s not me.” Rodney looked at the setup. “Admittedly it looks a bit primitive, but it should help us figure out how you do… whatever it is that you do. So!” he clapped his hands together briskly. “See that metal plate over there on the wall? Fling a marble at it.”
John shook his head. “I don’t have control of this ability. If I did, you really think I would have let you see a flying pencil?”
“You don’t? You said the others did.”
“They were trying to Ascend their entire lives. I was only there for six months. And I admit that I… may have let my mind wander during some of the meditation sessions.”
“You mean you fell asleep,” said Rodney.
“That, and I also ran football plays through my head,” John replied, grinning.
“Typical. All right, let’s see.” Rodney began to pace up and down the length of the lab. “How do I teach someone to use a skill he shouldn’t even have?”
“What makes you automatically think you can?”
“Hello, genius, remember?”
“You’ll never let me forget it!” John retorted.
“Shut up for a minute,” Rodney said suddenly, snapping his fingers rapidly. “How did you learn to fly a puddlejumper?”
John was confused. “You were there. The thing just responded to my thoughts, almost before I even knew I was having them.” He firmly shoved aside the memory of a turkey sandwich and an enthusiastic young 2IC. He’d make himself crazy if he kept dwelling on Ford.
“But it doesn’t respond to every thought you have, right? Otherwise the thing would be going around in circles from contradictory input. So why does it respond to certain thoughts and not others?”
John pondered that for a minute. “Yeah, I think I see what you’re getting at. It’s like there’s one part of my mind that’s piloting while the rest does other things. Kinda like... walking and chewing gum at the same time!”
Rodney rolled his eyes. “Yes, Professor. Maybe telekinetic functioning works the same way. That’s why things only start to move when you don’t concentrate directly on them.”
John shrugged. “Maybe. It’s as good an explanation as any, considering that no one’s seriously thought about this before.”
“You’d be surprised.”
Rodney had John sit on a lab stool while the two of them continued to trade insults. During the conversation, John tried several times without success to keep part of his attention focused on countering Rodney’s quips and part of it trying to move a marble. Only when he visualized the marble moving as it might appear on a puddlejumper heads-up display did he finally make progress.
“Holy crap,” he breathed at the sight of it rolling off the edge of the bench onto the floor. He would have said more, except that a pulse of agony shot through his skull. “OW!” he yelped involuntarily. The pain hadn’t been quite this bad before.
“John?” The astrophysicist looked up and his eyes widened. “What’s happening?”
John opened his mouth to reply, but instead found himself sliding off the stool. The last thing he heard as the room went dark was Rodney yelling for a medical team.
TBC
Chapter Six is here