Chapter 39
After a few technical difficulties, here's the next one!
The Valkyrie makes her move.
Chapter 39
Erin yawned, wishing she'd had the chance to sleep longer or better. But sleeping on the floor had given her bad dreams of the Big Death, and she'd finally decided to get up and do something useful. She couldn't face breakfast yet, but thought she might as well bring food for the prisoners before dealing with . So she carried one tray while Victor carried the other. Her young helper had volunteered to do it himself, but Erin hadn't thought that was wise. Victor was clueless about the corruption of Valhalla Sector, or the depths anyone from there would sink. She didn't want him to face the two of them and their taunts alone.
The guards at the door smiled at Erin as they unlocked the outer door. She entered first and wrinkled her nose, catching a strange scent that reminded her of the Big Death. She shrugged it away as a relic of her bad dreams and walked over to the front of Waverly's cell. He was sitting up on his cot. "Good morning," she said with saccharine sweetness.
He gave her an answering smile, but his was more genuine, which set her nerves more on edge. There was nothing for him to be happy about, so what secret thought gave him pleasure?
A gasp behind her made her pivot. Victor was staring into the other cell with a look of horror. There was a pool of blood on the floor of the cell. Inside, the woman was lying on her cot, and a partially uncoiled cot spring was sticking out of her wrist. Erin felt the bile rise in her throat. Susan had committed suicide.
Erin spun around and confronted Waverly again. He returned her glare with bland unconcern and a triumphant gleam in his eyes.
"Did you do this, you son of a bitch?" she accused. "Did you con her into believing taking her own life was her duty?" Sickened and furious, Erin put the tray on the floor, well out of reach He didn't deserve to eat.
She rushed to the door. "Call Markus," she told the guards. "Susan's killed herself." She grabbed Victor by the arm and dragged him out of the room. Her stomach was rolling and she needed to get as far away as possible.
---+---
Daniel followed Jack down the corridor on level 20, heading for the level's weapons storage room. It had been checked already of course, as had all the areas containing other things that might explode and enhance what Susan had stolen. But Markus had wanted them to check around the armory, in the surrounding rooms and conduits.
He had wanted to come do it himself, until Erin, Daniel, and Jack all together had managed to get him to wait in his office where he could be easily found. It hadn't been easy. Susan's death had convinced him she'd planted another bomb and he knew that time was running out.
They reached the room that was also an armory in their world, and Jack pulled the small flashlight off his vest to check up in the pipes of the ceiling.
Daniel followed suit, knowing full well that Jack was far more likely to find something. "So, you think Markus is right?"
"Yeah," Jack answered, peering upward. "She didn't want us to get the location from her. Or at least that scumbag Waverly didn't want us to get it from her. I'm sure he told her to kill herself and like a good little soldier she followed orders." He shook his head in disgust. "It's amazing anyone in Valhalla can think for himself, really, with that tin-hat dictator in charge for so long. It's probably a good thing Markus has first dibs on him, or I might express my displeasure at what he did to my country and my military more … forcefully."
Daniel shook his head, though he didn't really disagree. Markus had been pretty forceful in expressing his displeasure as it was. When he'd come to the brig earlier, he'd glared at the general and spat, "Let me make this clear -- if there is a bomb and it goes off, I will not evacuate you. No one gets put at risk to save such a pathetic excuse of a human being."
"Colonel West knows his duty," Waverly had replied smugly. "And when he takes this place, he knows what to do with you, too."
Somehow Markus reached through, grabbed Waverly's shirt and yanked him forward, slamming him into the bars, before Daniel had seen him move. Keeping Waverly smashed up hard against the iron, Markus snarled, "West will never have this place. He will never put one foot through the doors, I promise you that."
His fist had tightened the shirt up against Waverly's neck. But at the moment Daniel thought he might have to intervene, Markus had shoved Waverly away so hard the general stumbled and fell against the cot. Markus had left without another word.
Daniel followed Jack into a former office now supply room next to the armory, and they looked all around. There were shelves full of bottles of various cleaners, including bleach, which got Jack's attention, shining his little light to the back of the shelves. Finding nothing, he aimed it up at the ceiling and one of the omni-present ducts. "If she put it up in there somewhere we will never find it, Daniel."
"There are two teams looking in the ducts," Daniel reminded him.
Jack turned his head to raise his brows. "And do you know how many miles of ducting there are in this place?"
"Well, no," Daniel admitted, "Lots, I'm sure. But she wouldn't put the bomb in just some random pipe, would she? Our assumption all along has been that she wanted to do serious damage, enough to force Markus to open the doors."
"Which means fire or flood or a damn hurricane for all I know," Jack said, sounding frustrated as he headed for the door again. "And I agree. But there's a lot of things that can go boom and do damage down here."
Fire and flood got Daniel thinking about the apocalypse and one of the horsemen everyone seemed to have forgotten despite its being what had made this world. "Uh, Jack?"
In the hall, Jack faced him, with a wary look. "I know that face. Out with it, Jackson."
Daniel looked up and down the hall to make sure they were alone. "What about disease?" he asked softly. "Can the bomb break the containment around Meaghan?"
Jack hadn't met her yet, but he knew she carried the Big Death virus. He looked at Daniel for a full three seconds and then said, "Shit. You do come up with some bad ideas, you know that?" He reached up, rubbed his forehead tiredly and then shook his head. "She's a big secret, isn't she? You pretty much said that Markus was going to kill himself to make sure Waverly didn't learn about her. So how on Earth would Susan find out?"
"I'm not suggesting she placed the bomb near Meaghan on purpose, but what if the explosion stops the filters from working or the power gets cut and the virus escapes?"
"It doesn't work that way," Jack replied. "Those hazmat labs are sealed, Daniel. If the power goes off, air doesn't go in. Nothing can come out. But," Jack heaved a breath, "Susan could get lucky, I suppose. If the force of the blast manages to crack that chamber open, we could have a problem."
Daniel replied soberly, "That's what I thought."
It was at least an hour later when Daniel's stomach growled. He'd been tramping around the corridors since well before dawn, and they hadn't eaten or found a bomb.
He leaned against the wall and sighed. "We're not gonna find it in time, are we?" he asked bleakly. Because they were both sure there was one -- no one had found the missing materiel lying around either.
"It hasn't gone off yet," Jack said and shrugged. "Maybe we got lucky. The timer's fifteen years old, after all, maybe it just didn't work. Listen, why don't you go topside and get something to eat? I want to check on Carter. She's supposed to be hooking up the generator about now."
"You need breakfast as much as I do," Daniel countered, but readily stood up. He felt guilty to admit it to himself, but he did want a break.
The two men walked to the elevator and Jack called it. The doors opened, revealing Teal'c and Sarah.
"Howdy, folks," Jack greeted them. "Going up?"
"We are," Teal'c nodded in the affirmative.
Daniel entered first, with Jack at his heels. Jack punched the button for twenty-five. Daniel thought about joining him, eager to find out how close Sam was to getting them home, but decided on breakfast instead.
Jack left the elevator on twenty-five and waved goodbye with a cheerful grin while the doors closed.
---+---
Erin walked down the hall with Jeremiah, trying to feel how he was dealing with things. It seemed he had slept the night and he looked less strung out and haunted. He had joined in the search early this morning, and the activity seemed to do him some good.
Most of the residents had stayed overnight up on the ground level, but many of the qualified personnel had taken shifts below to continue the search. Andrew had organized the distribution of breakfast so no one would have to return below -- just in case. Erin had observed this all with trepidation. While the move for one night was a good idea, there was no way this would work for long.
Brian and Steve had called in from Fort Carson to say that their return trip had been uneventful and so far they couldn't see any signs of a military occupation anywhere near Thunder Mountain. While this relieved Erin, Jack had warned her not to get too comfortable. They could still be out there, just hidden or not far away.
They came to Markus' office. Erin opened the door to find Markus having a conversation, or really an argument, with himself, out loud. Quickly realizing that it was Malek he was talking to, she called loudly as she entered, "Markus?"
He started at the sound, but fortunately went quiet. When he turned, he looked calm, but his knuckles were white as they clenched the back of his chair. She knew he had risen before her, if he'd slept at all, and prowled the corridors, searching for the bomb himself. She wondered if he and Malek were fighting over going to search for it again.
"Yes, Erin? Jeremiah?" he demanded. "Did you find something?"
"I think I'll be of more use outside, looking for West and his soldiers," Jeremiah announced.
"No," Markus responded flatly. "I need you in here. We have to find the bomb before it goes off." There was desperation in his voice that Erin hadn't heard before, and she found it very unsettling. Markus was supposed to be the calm center of things, not anxious.
"We haven't found shit," Jeremiah replied. "I don't think she planted another. There wasn't time. It's all a ruse to get us outside to--"
The room lurched around them and a thunderous boom made the walls vibrate and heave. Erin grabbed at the desk to keep her feet, as one of the African violet pots rocked to the edge and fell. The ceiling light fixtures swayed, and pieces of tile fell. Books tumbled off the shelves.
All the lights flickered and went out. Everything was suddenly silent. It was a quiet Erin had never heard in the Mountain before. "Markus?" Erin called out, her quivering voice sounding loud in the darkness.
When he finally replied, his tone seemed oddly relieved. "The bomb found us."
---+---
The elevator had just glided past the sixth level when the floor jerked, flinging the three passengers into the walls. Teal'c and Daniel flanked Sarah, grabbing her when the elevator shuddered to a halt. For a second the lights blared more brightly and then went out, leaving them in total darkness.
Teal'c could sense the panic mounting in Sarah. She had crowded close to him, and one of her hands was clutching his forearm. His instincts wanted him to free himself, but he stayed still, allowing her time to calm herself.
Daniel removed a flashlight from his vest and passed the beam over Teal'c and Sarah. "Are you both okay?" he asked.
"Um, yeah," Sarah answered, slightly out of breath. "Just a bit shaky."
"I am uninjured, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c answered.
"Guess that was our bomb," Daniel added, turning his flashlight upward to the ceiling
"It felt like it was below us," Sarah said, letting go of his arm. In the dim light from Daniel's flashlight, she seemed to be controlling her fear. "Markus and Erin are down there."
"I think we'd better worry about ourselves for the moment," Daniel suggested. "This elevator's not a safe place to be right now." He glanced at Teal'c. "Could you give me a boost so I can take a look into the shaft?"
Teal'c agreed with that plan and bent to assist Daniel into the roof hatch, passing him the flashlight when he was secure.
"Good thing we're close to the ground floor," Sarah said.
"Yeah, but if we fall, it's a long way down," Daniel added. "I see a ladder, so we can climb up. We should be able to pry the doors open."
Scrambling out and taking a few steps across the car's roof out of sight, Daniel called down, "The ladder's sturdy. Still in good shape."
Teal'c lifted Sarah through the hatch and pulled himself out behind her. Slowly, they began their laborious climb upwards.
---+---
Markus stood in the dark silence, holding his breath to listen. He could hear both Jeremiah and Erin breathing, and one of them hit one of the rolling chairs, nudging it across the floor. The ceiling groaned. He could hear more distant sounds faintly, but nothing of the noise of the ventilation system. It wasn't coming back on, and neither were the lights. This was bad.
The batteries from the emergency lights in the room had been cannibalized long ago, to keep the lights and smoke detectors active in more vital areas of the mountain. But he kept a flashlight in the credenza, if he could find it. He started cautiously feeling his way there. The darkness was so absolute he felt like he could see more with his eyes closed.
*Don't suppose you can make our eyes glow to light the way?* he asked Malek.
*I can make them flash, but it will only serve to aid your companions in locating us.*
Since that wasn't very helpful, Markus continued on, fingers tracing the bookshelves until he found the back edge and the lower counter of the credenza.
Jeremiah muttered, "Well, I can't see a fucking thing. This sucks."
"Yeah, no kidding," Erin answered. After a moment, she asked, "Markus, I hear you moving around -- what are you doing?"
He opened the drawer and felt carefully for the flashlight. Praying the batteries were still good, he flicked it on and waved it triumphantly. "This."
The light was feeble, but seemed bright in the pitch darkness. Erin and Jeremiah were standing close together, brushing shoulders, but stepped apart when the light reached them. Markus was faintly amused, but said nothing. He went to the windows and waved the light into the cafeteria -- it wasn't nearly bright enough to reach the floor, but hopefully anyone who was down there could see the glow and would know to make their way upstairs.
His hand began to shake, making the light quiver. He felt a cold rage building inside him. This was his Mountain -- his home -- and again Valhalla was trying to destroy it. Everything he had built in the last fifteen years, they kept trying to tear down. He kept fighting them back and they kept coming. Maybe now they'd found the blow that he couldn't fight.
*But this time you have me to help you,* Malek silently reminded him.
*And you're going to use your alien gizmos to make this all go away?* Markus retorted, irritated by what seemed to be Malek's patronizing. *Exactly how are you going to help?*
Calmly Malek answered, *By supporting you. You are not alone, Markus.*
No, he wasn't, and that was both a comfort and a troubling reminder, especially with the eerie quiet. If power wasn't coming back on, that meant damage to one of the distribution nodes or the generators themselves. Given how forceful the blast had felt, he was pretty certain it had been set at the node on 25. "Let's go find the damage," he suggested out loud. Without waiting for a response, he left his office with Jeremiah and Erin trailing behind.
Two men were in the hall. "Markus? Is that you?"
Markus recognized Gabriel's voice. "Yes," he answered. "I'm with Erin and Jeremiah. Who's with you and how many are still down there?"
"Victor's behind me. Andrew and five others are still in the kitchen. They were getting some food together to bring upstairs for breakfast."
"Any damage down there?" Erin asked.
"Nothing much. Just no power." Gabriel paused, then asked, "Does this mean we have to take the stairs? Twenty-eight floors is a long way."
"Right now, we just need to go up three," Markus told him, heading towards the stairwell.
"Why?" Jeremiah asked, trailing behind.
"Because," Markus answered, without slowing, "if Sam was on that floor when it blew, she could be in serious trouble. And if that relay was destroyed, like I suspect, we are all in serious trouble."
"But why?" Jeremiah persisted.
"I told you once, remember? Without power this mountain becomes a very big coffin. Come on, people, let's go." The doorway into the stairwell was clear and the stairs looked passable. The six from the cafeteria joined them as they climbed up, carrying makeshift candle-lanterns.
"Markus! Are you okay?" Andrew asked, concern etched in his voice. He turned to Erin and Jeremiah. "Anyone hurt?"
Markus answered, "We're all fine. We just need to get up to twenty-five." He started up the stairs with the others following him. The dust in the air started to accumulate after they had gone up just one floor and he started to smell smoke. They had to step around some chunks of concrete and squeeze past a pile where rubble had fallen from the flight above. Above twenty five, the stairs looked impassable. Markus hoped the wall had collapsed, and not the stairs above them or it was going to be very difficult to clear. Except the elevator and two vertical air shafts with ladders, this stairwell was the only route up and down for the bottom eleven levels.
Markus stepped into hall and gazed around, his sleeve over his nose and mouth. As he had feared, the destruction on this floor was more severe.
Smoke and dust hung heavily in the air, almost solid to the beam of his flashlight. There was a fire in the electrical panel, but that was the only one he could see. Erin yanked an extinguisher off the wall and was able to put it out quickly.
Ignoring the corridor to his left, he went forward toward the visible damage. The force of the explosion had blown out the entire wall between the relay room and the corridor, leaving only ragged ends of bent metal frames and hanging bits of wire. The ceiling in the hallway had come down as well, blocking the corridor, and at least one water pipe was broken, pumping water onto the floor, already a few inches deep. Victor and Gabriel splashed directly to the big wheel at the pipe junction and turned it, effectively shutting off the water to the whole floor.
Erin leaned against the wall, coughing, resting the red cylinder against her knee. "How long can we survive down here without air exchange?" she asked, looking worried.
"Depends on how compromised it is by fumes and fires," Markus answered. "Andrew, take three and look for fires on the other side."
None of the fire alarms had gone off, but that didn't mean much. Most had to be manually pulled, and there were few people down here. If there was a big fire someplace he was going to have a very hard decision to make.
Andrew nodded, knowing how serious this was. He took Erin's extinguisher and another man grabbed the fire axe off the wall, and the four went back the way they'd come to find a way around.
The relay room had once had a door, but it was gone, probably buried under the rubble. He moved closer to the gaping hole in the wall of the corridor. God, if Sam had already reached the room… He swallowed hard and called out, "Sam? Can you hear me?"
"Over here." Her voice was weak, and she coughed to make it stronger. "I can't move."
Pushing aside his relief that she was alive, Markus carefully walked inside the room, gazing with shock at the damage. When he looked upward, he could glimpse of the ceiling of the room above them. The floor was a mess of fallen pipes, tiles, conduit, and metal ducts. His flashlight flicked from one pile to another before it reflected off of her blond hair.
She was in the far corner, shielded from the full force of the blast by the workbench bolted to the floor. A metal cart nearby had not been as lucky; it had slammed into the concrete wall and was a twisted wreck. The ceiling collapse had dumped tile and the aluminum frames on her, plus what looked like an insulation-wrapped I-beam on top of the pile.
Malek groaned inside his head. *She is beneath a ceiling beam. Very heavy to move.*
*But with so many to help and our superior strength, surely it's enough?*
*If we can all fit in the space provided and have adequate footing to lift it.*
Markus felt Malek lift his foot and watched as the water dripped from his shoe. It would be slippery, he admitted. "How badly are you hurt?" Markus asked Sam, trying to gauge the best way to tackle the lifting.
"Oh, Sam," Erin cried, coming up alongside Markus. "Are you okay?"
"Not really," Sam answered faintly. Markus didn't like how ashen she looked, though hopefully some of it was dust. "I think my leg's broken. And my chest hurts."
Erin looked around. "Was there anyone else with you?"
"At first," she answered. "To help me bring in the necessary tools. But they got in my way, so they left to keep hunting for the bomb." She gasped for breath. "I think they went inside the ducts, behind this room." Her gaze went past him to the back wall, which seemed to have been the epicenter of the blast zone.
Markus knew what that meant. Most likely they were dead. The pain was like a sharp knife in his gut.
"Markus, we need to focus on Sam," Malek reminded him.
"Jeremiah, Gabriel," Markus called out. "Climb over the beam to the other side. Let's try to lift this thing." Malek was right; with so much debris lying around there wasn't much room to maneuver and no footing.
With Victor and one of the cooks standing next to him, they started to lift the beam. Erin grabbed a hold of Sam's free arm to try and pull her out. Markus counted to three and they heaved. At first the beam eased upwards, but it caught on the protruding corner of the workbench. Markus tried to maneuver his end around it, but Gabriel let out a cough and then his feet slipped, coming out from under him. The beam slammed back down, which made her groan in agony before falling silent.
"She's passed out," Erin told him worriedly.
Markus took a look and realized the beam was now not braced by anything, placing even more weight upon her in addition to the fallen debris. "We need to clear some of this out of the way," he suggested and picked up a metal rod as big as his arm, pitching it out into the corridor. His flashlight, perched precariously on the workbench, shone on an odd metallic box on the floor next to the wall, not far from Sam's head. The generator. He looked back to Sam. First things first, get her free; then he'd worry about its condition.
The others followed his lead and began moving as much of the loose stuff from the pile as they could. Markus knelt next to Sam, feeling for a pulse and wishing he had one of those Tok'ra healing devices. Daniel had mentioned them while they'd been locked up at Valhalla, and now knowing he could use one, he wished he'd asked Jolinar and Lantash for one before they'd left. He should have known he'd need one.
*Stop castigating yourself,* Malek chided. *We cannot think of everything. We are only human, you know."
Markus almost smiled at the symbiote's attempt at humor.
With more of the debris out of the way, they tried lifting the beam again. Markus had better footing himself and was able to lift more of the weight, and felt a bit pleased at his increased strength.
He held the beam, while Erin and Victor dragged Sam out from underneath. They let the beam fall once everyone was clear, and Markus knelt to assess her condition. It was bad. He let Malek make a more accurate assessment: her ribs were probably cracked and strained, perhaps broken. Worse, her left femur was badly fractured, and her knee joint had been crushed, and was bleeding in several places. She would be crippled for the rest of her life if he couldn't get a healing device.
"We need to set up a splint for her," Jeremiah spoke, breaking into his internal assessment.
He and Gabriel found a straight board and began ripping their t-shirts. Erin donated her belt and sneaker laces. Malek set and bandaged Sam's leg the best he could, wrapping it snugly with the strips of clothing. Next he tied her legs to a board to help stabilize them for the journey to the surface. It would be hard to rig a harness to lift her up the air shafts, without further damaging her ribs though.
Suddenly her radio became active. "Sam? Are you there?" Daniel's frantic voice echoed in the very quiet room.
Markus pulled it from her vest pocket. "Daniel, it's Markus. Sam was caught in the room where the bomb went off. Her leg is broken badly, but I don't see how we can get her up to the top."
"You and Teal'c could do it," Daniel suggested.
"No. Unless you know how to get the power up and running." He snapped, annoyed, and coughed as the smoke caught his throat. "I have to get the circulation system restarted."
There was a pause and then Daniel said, "We're coming back down. There's a couple of techs up here who say they can help. Is Jack with you?"
Markus stiffened. "No. Was he supposed to be?"
"Last time I spoke to him he was making his way to see how Sam was doing. He's not answering his radio," Daniel added, sounding more worried.
"I'll have the others start looking for him."
There was a pause and Lee's familiar voice came over the radio. "Markus? You should know we've still got power up here and the outside cameras still work. No visitors. At least not yet."
Markus shut his eyes briefly in relief. "Good. But Lee, that's not the only threat right now. You must not open the main doors until I can check the restricted section. I have to do the check myself, but I've got to get power on first. But no open doors to the Outside, until I give the okay. Do you understand?"
Lee acknowledged, seriously enough that Markus thought he might actually obey, so Markus signed off.
He refused to risk the whole world, even for his own people. He had to check Meaghan himself, since Malek could cure the infection in himself but no one else. But there was no time now. Meaghan knew enough to get into her suit -- hopefully that would keep the virus contained as well as provide her enough air until he could restore power.
And if not… He pushed his anxiety for her down and out of his way. He had work to do. If he failed here, Meaghan's death by suffocation was going to be the least of his problems.
He stood up, calculating what to do first. Erin volunteered to stay with Sam, so Markus sent the rest to go look for Jack and anyone else who'd been hurt. Then he went directly to what had once been the relays of the power distribution and traced the path of the explosion mentally.
"So?" Erin prompted, coming over to him with a wet cloth. She'd already tied one over her face.
He put it on absently, looking upward at the gaping hole. "She put it in the ceiling right about here. The tiles didn't slow it down at all. I must've stood right under it, never saw a damn thing," he said, surveying the damage. The non-existent wall between the hall and the room had been just wood and plaster, and it didn't worry him. But the opposite wall, where the various electrical conduits had come in to the monitors and switches and then back out again, routing electricity to the lower half of the base, was a tangled and burnt nest. Pure luck, or perhaps Susan's skill, had kept the explosion from turning into a massive electrical fire.
"But you can fix it, right?" she asked.
He wished he had her faith in him. Because, looking at this mess, he didn't know if he could. "I think I can patch it. Fixing it will have to wait." He pushed up his sleeves. "Minimal structural damage, maximum damage to the system to force me to open the doors. Damn, she was smart." He couldn't help a little admiration, and more pity for such a waste.
He propped the flashlight on top of the cart. Losing track of time, he concentrated on clearing the damage first: yanking conduit, snipping wires, and discarding burnt fuses. It was tedious, but lost within the rhythm, it seemed only minutes before the sound of voices broke into his concentration. He turned his head to see Teal'c lead in David and Harry, both electricians in the Mountain's maintenance crew.
"Has O'Neill been located?" Teal'c asked, kneeling beside Erin and gazing upon his fallen comrade with a worried frown.
"Not that I've heard," Markus answered, glancing at Erin for confirmation. She shook her head. "Which ways down are open?"
"The ventilation and elevator shafts are all accessible," Teal'c answered. "Only level 24 and below has sustained damage."
David, who'd been the first of Markus' students in the mountain's systems, added, "Power's on above fourteen. It went off with the surge but we got it back after a few minutes. We shut off the feeds down here."
Markus nodded, relieved that he had such quick-thinking staff. "Good job. At least we don't have to worry about any live current."
He coughed, trying to think. "Has there been a head count? Are there many missing?" He'd been so focused on his task, he had forgotten to think about any others who might have been caught by the blast.
"Lee Chen has accounted for everyone," Teal'c answered, "except the group who was in the duct system, the two men with Major Carter, and O'Neill."
Markus nodded. "I've got to finish getting the power back on or ..." he let his sentence hang, not wanting to say they were all going to die. "There isn't enough air to last much longer than that."
Teal'c and Daniel looked grave but nodded. They understood the situation. "We will search for the missing team."
"And Jack," Daniel added.
"Great," Markus acknowledged. "I've already sent out some others. Let me know if you find any of them." They both left, and he motioned for the two techs to come to his side. "You can help me." Eagerly they came over carrying extra wire and tools, and soon they were making progress on putting the power grid back in order.
Markus was beginning to think they would make it, when he discovered that the main line conduit had blown too, in a secondary explosion under the stairs. Worse, it was the bridge between the live electricity from the generators above, to the lower floors and the circulation system. He needed to replace at least fifteen feet of heavy-duty conduit, or nothing he did in the other room was going to make a difference, because there would be no current to send to the proper place.
He stripped Sam's small flashlight off her vest and handed it to David. "Take this. You need to find new conduit upstairs. Try the supply room next to the generators."
David looked dubious. "To carry the load to the entire system? We don't have any big enough."
"I know that!" Markus snapped and took a deep breath, raising a hand in partial apology. "Just grab whatever you can find that'll carry something. Hurry. Go!"
They raced out of the room, and when he went back to the relay room, his gaze fell on the odd-shaped object on the floor. It was Sam's naquadah generator. If he could hook it up here, he wouldn't need the power from the upstairs generators. But could he do it alone? He knew nothing about the alien device. *Do you, Malek?*
*I know enough about naquadah power generation to fix most problems in a tel'tak or ha'tak engine. But my expertise is molecular chemistry, and I have never seen this particular device before. Together, I hope we can figure it out. First, you need to be sure it is still functional.*
Markus glanced at Sam, still lying unconscious, then walked over to it. The generator was angular, about the size of two shoe boxes, with loose wires protruding, and a rheostat and switch attached to it. He definitely couldn't just plug it into the wall.
He reached out and righted it on the floor. Something rattled and clanked within the housing.
Loose pieces could not be a good sign.
Then, taking a deep breath, he grabbed a screwdriver and started to remove the side panel. He had to at least try to fix it.
"I can do this," he muttered under his breath, to himself and to Malek. "I studied quantum mechanics after all. How many people on this whole fucking planet can say that? Not too damn many. Plus I have you. How hard can this be?"
He pulled the panel off and put it aside. There was the naquadah, glowing an eerie green in the dim light, and a long clear crystal. Something round and white rolled out. The whole configuration was totally unlike anything he had ever seen before.
Letting out a sigh, he answered his own question. "Hard."
INDEX or onto Chapter 40.
The Valkyrie makes her move.
Chapter 39
Erin yawned, wishing she'd had the chance to sleep longer or better. But sleeping on the floor had given her bad dreams of the Big Death, and she'd finally decided to get up and do something useful. She couldn't face breakfast yet, but thought she might as well bring food for the prisoners before dealing with . So she carried one tray while Victor carried the other. Her young helper had volunteered to do it himself, but Erin hadn't thought that was wise. Victor was clueless about the corruption of Valhalla Sector, or the depths anyone from there would sink. She didn't want him to face the two of them and their taunts alone.
The guards at the door smiled at Erin as they unlocked the outer door. She entered first and wrinkled her nose, catching a strange scent that reminded her of the Big Death. She shrugged it away as a relic of her bad dreams and walked over to the front of Waverly's cell. He was sitting up on his cot. "Good morning," she said with saccharine sweetness.
He gave her an answering smile, but his was more genuine, which set her nerves more on edge. There was nothing for him to be happy about, so what secret thought gave him pleasure?
A gasp behind her made her pivot. Victor was staring into the other cell with a look of horror. There was a pool of blood on the floor of the cell. Inside, the woman was lying on her cot, and a partially uncoiled cot spring was sticking out of her wrist. Erin felt the bile rise in her throat. Susan had committed suicide.
Erin spun around and confronted Waverly again. He returned her glare with bland unconcern and a triumphant gleam in his eyes.
"Did you do this, you son of a bitch?" she accused. "Did you con her into believing taking her own life was her duty?" Sickened and furious, Erin put the tray on the floor, well out of reach He didn't deserve to eat.
She rushed to the door. "Call Markus," she told the guards. "Susan's killed herself." She grabbed Victor by the arm and dragged him out of the room. Her stomach was rolling and she needed to get as far away as possible.
---+---
Daniel followed Jack down the corridor on level 20, heading for the level's weapons storage room. It had been checked already of course, as had all the areas containing other things that might explode and enhance what Susan had stolen. But Markus had wanted them to check around the armory, in the surrounding rooms and conduits.
He had wanted to come do it himself, until Erin, Daniel, and Jack all together had managed to get him to wait in his office where he could be easily found. It hadn't been easy. Susan's death had convinced him she'd planted another bomb and he knew that time was running out.
They reached the room that was also an armory in their world, and Jack pulled the small flashlight off his vest to check up in the pipes of the ceiling.
Daniel followed suit, knowing full well that Jack was far more likely to find something. "So, you think Markus is right?"
"Yeah," Jack answered, peering upward. "She didn't want us to get the location from her. Or at least that scumbag Waverly didn't want us to get it from her. I'm sure he told her to kill herself and like a good little soldier she followed orders." He shook his head in disgust. "It's amazing anyone in Valhalla can think for himself, really, with that tin-hat dictator in charge for so long. It's probably a good thing Markus has first dibs on him, or I might express my displeasure at what he did to my country and my military more … forcefully."
Daniel shook his head, though he didn't really disagree. Markus had been pretty forceful in expressing his displeasure as it was. When he'd come to the brig earlier, he'd glared at the general and spat, "Let me make this clear -- if there is a bomb and it goes off, I will not evacuate you. No one gets put at risk to save such a pathetic excuse of a human being."
"Colonel West knows his duty," Waverly had replied smugly. "And when he takes this place, he knows what to do with you, too."
Somehow Markus reached through, grabbed Waverly's shirt and yanked him forward, slamming him into the bars, before Daniel had seen him move. Keeping Waverly smashed up hard against the iron, Markus snarled, "West will never have this place. He will never put one foot through the doors, I promise you that."
His fist had tightened the shirt up against Waverly's neck. But at the moment Daniel thought he might have to intervene, Markus had shoved Waverly away so hard the general stumbled and fell against the cot. Markus had left without another word.
Daniel followed Jack into a former office now supply room next to the armory, and they looked all around. There were shelves full of bottles of various cleaners, including bleach, which got Jack's attention, shining his little light to the back of the shelves. Finding nothing, he aimed it up at the ceiling and one of the omni-present ducts. "If she put it up in there somewhere we will never find it, Daniel."
"There are two teams looking in the ducts," Daniel reminded him.
Jack turned his head to raise his brows. "And do you know how many miles of ducting there are in this place?"
"Well, no," Daniel admitted, "Lots, I'm sure. But she wouldn't put the bomb in just some random pipe, would she? Our assumption all along has been that she wanted to do serious damage, enough to force Markus to open the doors."
"Which means fire or flood or a damn hurricane for all I know," Jack said, sounding frustrated as he headed for the door again. "And I agree. But there's a lot of things that can go boom and do damage down here."
Fire and flood got Daniel thinking about the apocalypse and one of the horsemen everyone seemed to have forgotten despite its being what had made this world. "Uh, Jack?"
In the hall, Jack faced him, with a wary look. "I know that face. Out with it, Jackson."
Daniel looked up and down the hall to make sure they were alone. "What about disease?" he asked softly. "Can the bomb break the containment around Meaghan?"
Jack hadn't met her yet, but he knew she carried the Big Death virus. He looked at Daniel for a full three seconds and then said, "Shit. You do come up with some bad ideas, you know that?" He reached up, rubbed his forehead tiredly and then shook his head. "She's a big secret, isn't she? You pretty much said that Markus was going to kill himself to make sure Waverly didn't learn about her. So how on Earth would Susan find out?"
"I'm not suggesting she placed the bomb near Meaghan on purpose, but what if the explosion stops the filters from working or the power gets cut and the virus escapes?"
"It doesn't work that way," Jack replied. "Those hazmat labs are sealed, Daniel. If the power goes off, air doesn't go in. Nothing can come out. But," Jack heaved a breath, "Susan could get lucky, I suppose. If the force of the blast manages to crack that chamber open, we could have a problem."
Daniel replied soberly, "That's what I thought."
It was at least an hour later when Daniel's stomach growled. He'd been tramping around the corridors since well before dawn, and they hadn't eaten or found a bomb.
He leaned against the wall and sighed. "We're not gonna find it in time, are we?" he asked bleakly. Because they were both sure there was one -- no one had found the missing materiel lying around either.
"It hasn't gone off yet," Jack said and shrugged. "Maybe we got lucky. The timer's fifteen years old, after all, maybe it just didn't work. Listen, why don't you go topside and get something to eat? I want to check on Carter. She's supposed to be hooking up the generator about now."
"You need breakfast as much as I do," Daniel countered, but readily stood up. He felt guilty to admit it to himself, but he did want a break.
The two men walked to the elevator and Jack called it. The doors opened, revealing Teal'c and Sarah.
"Howdy, folks," Jack greeted them. "Going up?"
"We are," Teal'c nodded in the affirmative.
Daniel entered first, with Jack at his heels. Jack punched the button for twenty-five. Daniel thought about joining him, eager to find out how close Sam was to getting them home, but decided on breakfast instead.
Jack left the elevator on twenty-five and waved goodbye with a cheerful grin while the doors closed.
---+---
Erin walked down the hall with Jeremiah, trying to feel how he was dealing with things. It seemed he had slept the night and he looked less strung out and haunted. He had joined in the search early this morning, and the activity seemed to do him some good.
Most of the residents had stayed overnight up on the ground level, but many of the qualified personnel had taken shifts below to continue the search. Andrew had organized the distribution of breakfast so no one would have to return below -- just in case. Erin had observed this all with trepidation. While the move for one night was a good idea, there was no way this would work for long.
Brian and Steve had called in from Fort Carson to say that their return trip had been uneventful and so far they couldn't see any signs of a military occupation anywhere near Thunder Mountain. While this relieved Erin, Jack had warned her not to get too comfortable. They could still be out there, just hidden or not far away.
They came to Markus' office. Erin opened the door to find Markus having a conversation, or really an argument, with himself, out loud. Quickly realizing that it was Malek he was talking to, she called loudly as she entered, "Markus?"
He started at the sound, but fortunately went quiet. When he turned, he looked calm, but his knuckles were white as they clenched the back of his chair. She knew he had risen before her, if he'd slept at all, and prowled the corridors, searching for the bomb himself. She wondered if he and Malek were fighting over going to search for it again.
"Yes, Erin? Jeremiah?" he demanded. "Did you find something?"
"I think I'll be of more use outside, looking for West and his soldiers," Jeremiah announced.
"No," Markus responded flatly. "I need you in here. We have to find the bomb before it goes off." There was desperation in his voice that Erin hadn't heard before, and she found it very unsettling. Markus was supposed to be the calm center of things, not anxious.
"We haven't found shit," Jeremiah replied. "I don't think she planted another. There wasn't time. It's all a ruse to get us outside to--"
The room lurched around them and a thunderous boom made the walls vibrate and heave. Erin grabbed at the desk to keep her feet, as one of the African violet pots rocked to the edge and fell. The ceiling light fixtures swayed, and pieces of tile fell. Books tumbled off the shelves.
All the lights flickered and went out. Everything was suddenly silent. It was a quiet Erin had never heard in the Mountain before. "Markus?" Erin called out, her quivering voice sounding loud in the darkness.
When he finally replied, his tone seemed oddly relieved. "The bomb found us."
---+---
The elevator had just glided past the sixth level when the floor jerked, flinging the three passengers into the walls. Teal'c and Daniel flanked Sarah, grabbing her when the elevator shuddered to a halt. For a second the lights blared more brightly and then went out, leaving them in total darkness.
Teal'c could sense the panic mounting in Sarah. She had crowded close to him, and one of her hands was clutching his forearm. His instincts wanted him to free himself, but he stayed still, allowing her time to calm herself.
Daniel removed a flashlight from his vest and passed the beam over Teal'c and Sarah. "Are you both okay?" he asked.
"Um, yeah," Sarah answered, slightly out of breath. "Just a bit shaky."
"I am uninjured, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c answered.
"Guess that was our bomb," Daniel added, turning his flashlight upward to the ceiling
"It felt like it was below us," Sarah said, letting go of his arm. In the dim light from Daniel's flashlight, she seemed to be controlling her fear. "Markus and Erin are down there."
"I think we'd better worry about ourselves for the moment," Daniel suggested. "This elevator's not a safe place to be right now." He glanced at Teal'c. "Could you give me a boost so I can take a look into the shaft?"
Teal'c agreed with that plan and bent to assist Daniel into the roof hatch, passing him the flashlight when he was secure.
"Good thing we're close to the ground floor," Sarah said.
"Yeah, but if we fall, it's a long way down," Daniel added. "I see a ladder, so we can climb up. We should be able to pry the doors open."
Scrambling out and taking a few steps across the car's roof out of sight, Daniel called down, "The ladder's sturdy. Still in good shape."
Teal'c lifted Sarah through the hatch and pulled himself out behind her. Slowly, they began their laborious climb upwards.
---+---
Markus stood in the dark silence, holding his breath to listen. He could hear both Jeremiah and Erin breathing, and one of them hit one of the rolling chairs, nudging it across the floor. The ceiling groaned. He could hear more distant sounds faintly, but nothing of the noise of the ventilation system. It wasn't coming back on, and neither were the lights. This was bad.
The batteries from the emergency lights in the room had been cannibalized long ago, to keep the lights and smoke detectors active in more vital areas of the mountain. But he kept a flashlight in the credenza, if he could find it. He started cautiously feeling his way there. The darkness was so absolute he felt like he could see more with his eyes closed.
*Don't suppose you can make our eyes glow to light the way?* he asked Malek.
*I can make them flash, but it will only serve to aid your companions in locating us.*
Since that wasn't very helpful, Markus continued on, fingers tracing the bookshelves until he found the back edge and the lower counter of the credenza.
Jeremiah muttered, "Well, I can't see a fucking thing. This sucks."
"Yeah, no kidding," Erin answered. After a moment, she asked, "Markus, I hear you moving around -- what are you doing?"
He opened the drawer and felt carefully for the flashlight. Praying the batteries were still good, he flicked it on and waved it triumphantly. "This."
The light was feeble, but seemed bright in the pitch darkness. Erin and Jeremiah were standing close together, brushing shoulders, but stepped apart when the light reached them. Markus was faintly amused, but said nothing. He went to the windows and waved the light into the cafeteria -- it wasn't nearly bright enough to reach the floor, but hopefully anyone who was down there could see the glow and would know to make their way upstairs.
His hand began to shake, making the light quiver. He felt a cold rage building inside him. This was his Mountain -- his home -- and again Valhalla was trying to destroy it. Everything he had built in the last fifteen years, they kept trying to tear down. He kept fighting them back and they kept coming. Maybe now they'd found the blow that he couldn't fight.
*But this time you have me to help you,* Malek silently reminded him.
*And you're going to use your alien gizmos to make this all go away?* Markus retorted, irritated by what seemed to be Malek's patronizing. *Exactly how are you going to help?*
Calmly Malek answered, *By supporting you. You are not alone, Markus.*
No, he wasn't, and that was both a comfort and a troubling reminder, especially with the eerie quiet. If power wasn't coming back on, that meant damage to one of the distribution nodes or the generators themselves. Given how forceful the blast had felt, he was pretty certain it had been set at the node on 25. "Let's go find the damage," he suggested out loud. Without waiting for a response, he left his office with Jeremiah and Erin trailing behind.
Two men were in the hall. "Markus? Is that you?"
Markus recognized Gabriel's voice. "Yes," he answered. "I'm with Erin and Jeremiah. Who's with you and how many are still down there?"
"Victor's behind me. Andrew and five others are still in the kitchen. They were getting some food together to bring upstairs for breakfast."
"Any damage down there?" Erin asked.
"Nothing much. Just no power." Gabriel paused, then asked, "Does this mean we have to take the stairs? Twenty-eight floors is a long way."
"Right now, we just need to go up three," Markus told him, heading towards the stairwell.
"Why?" Jeremiah asked, trailing behind.
"Because," Markus answered, without slowing, "if Sam was on that floor when it blew, she could be in serious trouble. And if that relay was destroyed, like I suspect, we are all in serious trouble."
"But why?" Jeremiah persisted.
"I told you once, remember? Without power this mountain becomes a very big coffin. Come on, people, let's go." The doorway into the stairwell was clear and the stairs looked passable. The six from the cafeteria joined them as they climbed up, carrying makeshift candle-lanterns.
"Markus! Are you okay?" Andrew asked, concern etched in his voice. He turned to Erin and Jeremiah. "Anyone hurt?"
Markus answered, "We're all fine. We just need to get up to twenty-five." He started up the stairs with the others following him. The dust in the air started to accumulate after they had gone up just one floor and he started to smell smoke. They had to step around some chunks of concrete and squeeze past a pile where rubble had fallen from the flight above. Above twenty five, the stairs looked impassable. Markus hoped the wall had collapsed, and not the stairs above them or it was going to be very difficult to clear. Except the elevator and two vertical air shafts with ladders, this stairwell was the only route up and down for the bottom eleven levels.
Markus stepped into hall and gazed around, his sleeve over his nose and mouth. As he had feared, the destruction on this floor was more severe.
Smoke and dust hung heavily in the air, almost solid to the beam of his flashlight. There was a fire in the electrical panel, but that was the only one he could see. Erin yanked an extinguisher off the wall and was able to put it out quickly.
Ignoring the corridor to his left, he went forward toward the visible damage. The force of the explosion had blown out the entire wall between the relay room and the corridor, leaving only ragged ends of bent metal frames and hanging bits of wire. The ceiling in the hallway had come down as well, blocking the corridor, and at least one water pipe was broken, pumping water onto the floor, already a few inches deep. Victor and Gabriel splashed directly to the big wheel at the pipe junction and turned it, effectively shutting off the water to the whole floor.
Erin leaned against the wall, coughing, resting the red cylinder against her knee. "How long can we survive down here without air exchange?" she asked, looking worried.
"Depends on how compromised it is by fumes and fires," Markus answered. "Andrew, take three and look for fires on the other side."
None of the fire alarms had gone off, but that didn't mean much. Most had to be manually pulled, and there were few people down here. If there was a big fire someplace he was going to have a very hard decision to make.
Andrew nodded, knowing how serious this was. He took Erin's extinguisher and another man grabbed the fire axe off the wall, and the four went back the way they'd come to find a way around.
The relay room had once had a door, but it was gone, probably buried under the rubble. He moved closer to the gaping hole in the wall of the corridor. God, if Sam had already reached the room… He swallowed hard and called out, "Sam? Can you hear me?"
"Over here." Her voice was weak, and she coughed to make it stronger. "I can't move."
Pushing aside his relief that she was alive, Markus carefully walked inside the room, gazing with shock at the damage. When he looked upward, he could glimpse of the ceiling of the room above them. The floor was a mess of fallen pipes, tiles, conduit, and metal ducts. His flashlight flicked from one pile to another before it reflected off of her blond hair.
She was in the far corner, shielded from the full force of the blast by the workbench bolted to the floor. A metal cart nearby had not been as lucky; it had slammed into the concrete wall and was a twisted wreck. The ceiling collapse had dumped tile and the aluminum frames on her, plus what looked like an insulation-wrapped I-beam on top of the pile.
Malek groaned inside his head. *She is beneath a ceiling beam. Very heavy to move.*
*But with so many to help and our superior strength, surely it's enough?*
*If we can all fit in the space provided and have adequate footing to lift it.*
Markus felt Malek lift his foot and watched as the water dripped from his shoe. It would be slippery, he admitted. "How badly are you hurt?" Markus asked Sam, trying to gauge the best way to tackle the lifting.
"Oh, Sam," Erin cried, coming up alongside Markus. "Are you okay?"
"Not really," Sam answered faintly. Markus didn't like how ashen she looked, though hopefully some of it was dust. "I think my leg's broken. And my chest hurts."
Erin looked around. "Was there anyone else with you?"
"At first," she answered. "To help me bring in the necessary tools. But they got in my way, so they left to keep hunting for the bomb." She gasped for breath. "I think they went inside the ducts, behind this room." Her gaze went past him to the back wall, which seemed to have been the epicenter of the blast zone.
Markus knew what that meant. Most likely they were dead. The pain was like a sharp knife in his gut.
"Markus, we need to focus on Sam," Malek reminded him.
"Jeremiah, Gabriel," Markus called out. "Climb over the beam to the other side. Let's try to lift this thing." Malek was right; with so much debris lying around there wasn't much room to maneuver and no footing.
With Victor and one of the cooks standing next to him, they started to lift the beam. Erin grabbed a hold of Sam's free arm to try and pull her out. Markus counted to three and they heaved. At first the beam eased upwards, but it caught on the protruding corner of the workbench. Markus tried to maneuver his end around it, but Gabriel let out a cough and then his feet slipped, coming out from under him. The beam slammed back down, which made her groan in agony before falling silent.
"She's passed out," Erin told him worriedly.
Markus took a look and realized the beam was now not braced by anything, placing even more weight upon her in addition to the fallen debris. "We need to clear some of this out of the way," he suggested and picked up a metal rod as big as his arm, pitching it out into the corridor. His flashlight, perched precariously on the workbench, shone on an odd metallic box on the floor next to the wall, not far from Sam's head. The generator. He looked back to Sam. First things first, get her free; then he'd worry about its condition.
The others followed his lead and began moving as much of the loose stuff from the pile as they could. Markus knelt next to Sam, feeling for a pulse and wishing he had one of those Tok'ra healing devices. Daniel had mentioned them while they'd been locked up at Valhalla, and now knowing he could use one, he wished he'd asked Jolinar and Lantash for one before they'd left. He should have known he'd need one.
*Stop castigating yourself,* Malek chided. *We cannot think of everything. We are only human, you know."
Markus almost smiled at the symbiote's attempt at humor.
With more of the debris out of the way, they tried lifting the beam again. Markus had better footing himself and was able to lift more of the weight, and felt a bit pleased at his increased strength.
He held the beam, while Erin and Victor dragged Sam out from underneath. They let the beam fall once everyone was clear, and Markus knelt to assess her condition. It was bad. He let Malek make a more accurate assessment: her ribs were probably cracked and strained, perhaps broken. Worse, her left femur was badly fractured, and her knee joint had been crushed, and was bleeding in several places. She would be crippled for the rest of her life if he couldn't get a healing device.
"We need to set up a splint for her," Jeremiah spoke, breaking into his internal assessment.
He and Gabriel found a straight board and began ripping their t-shirts. Erin donated her belt and sneaker laces. Malek set and bandaged Sam's leg the best he could, wrapping it snugly with the strips of clothing. Next he tied her legs to a board to help stabilize them for the journey to the surface. It would be hard to rig a harness to lift her up the air shafts, without further damaging her ribs though.
Suddenly her radio became active. "Sam? Are you there?" Daniel's frantic voice echoed in the very quiet room.
Markus pulled it from her vest pocket. "Daniel, it's Markus. Sam was caught in the room where the bomb went off. Her leg is broken badly, but I don't see how we can get her up to the top."
"You and Teal'c could do it," Daniel suggested.
"No. Unless you know how to get the power up and running." He snapped, annoyed, and coughed as the smoke caught his throat. "I have to get the circulation system restarted."
There was a pause and then Daniel said, "We're coming back down. There's a couple of techs up here who say they can help. Is Jack with you?"
Markus stiffened. "No. Was he supposed to be?"
"Last time I spoke to him he was making his way to see how Sam was doing. He's not answering his radio," Daniel added, sounding more worried.
"I'll have the others start looking for him."
There was a pause and Lee's familiar voice came over the radio. "Markus? You should know we've still got power up here and the outside cameras still work. No visitors. At least not yet."
Markus shut his eyes briefly in relief. "Good. But Lee, that's not the only threat right now. You must not open the main doors until I can check the restricted section. I have to do the check myself, but I've got to get power on first. But no open doors to the Outside, until I give the okay. Do you understand?"
Lee acknowledged, seriously enough that Markus thought he might actually obey, so Markus signed off.
He refused to risk the whole world, even for his own people. He had to check Meaghan himself, since Malek could cure the infection in himself but no one else. But there was no time now. Meaghan knew enough to get into her suit -- hopefully that would keep the virus contained as well as provide her enough air until he could restore power.
And if not… He pushed his anxiety for her down and out of his way. He had work to do. If he failed here, Meaghan's death by suffocation was going to be the least of his problems.
He stood up, calculating what to do first. Erin volunteered to stay with Sam, so Markus sent the rest to go look for Jack and anyone else who'd been hurt. Then he went directly to what had once been the relays of the power distribution and traced the path of the explosion mentally.
"So?" Erin prompted, coming over to him with a wet cloth. She'd already tied one over her face.
He put it on absently, looking upward at the gaping hole. "She put it in the ceiling right about here. The tiles didn't slow it down at all. I must've stood right under it, never saw a damn thing," he said, surveying the damage. The non-existent wall between the hall and the room had been just wood and plaster, and it didn't worry him. But the opposite wall, where the various electrical conduits had come in to the monitors and switches and then back out again, routing electricity to the lower half of the base, was a tangled and burnt nest. Pure luck, or perhaps Susan's skill, had kept the explosion from turning into a massive electrical fire.
"But you can fix it, right?" she asked.
He wished he had her faith in him. Because, looking at this mess, he didn't know if he could. "I think I can patch it. Fixing it will have to wait." He pushed up his sleeves. "Minimal structural damage, maximum damage to the system to force me to open the doors. Damn, she was smart." He couldn't help a little admiration, and more pity for such a waste.
He propped the flashlight on top of the cart. Losing track of time, he concentrated on clearing the damage first: yanking conduit, snipping wires, and discarding burnt fuses. It was tedious, but lost within the rhythm, it seemed only minutes before the sound of voices broke into his concentration. He turned his head to see Teal'c lead in David and Harry, both electricians in the Mountain's maintenance crew.
"Has O'Neill been located?" Teal'c asked, kneeling beside Erin and gazing upon his fallen comrade with a worried frown.
"Not that I've heard," Markus answered, glancing at Erin for confirmation. She shook her head. "Which ways down are open?"
"The ventilation and elevator shafts are all accessible," Teal'c answered. "Only level 24 and below has sustained damage."
David, who'd been the first of Markus' students in the mountain's systems, added, "Power's on above fourteen. It went off with the surge but we got it back after a few minutes. We shut off the feeds down here."
Markus nodded, relieved that he had such quick-thinking staff. "Good job. At least we don't have to worry about any live current."
He coughed, trying to think. "Has there been a head count? Are there many missing?" He'd been so focused on his task, he had forgotten to think about any others who might have been caught by the blast.
"Lee Chen has accounted for everyone," Teal'c answered, "except the group who was in the duct system, the two men with Major Carter, and O'Neill."
Markus nodded. "I've got to finish getting the power back on or ..." he let his sentence hang, not wanting to say they were all going to die. "There isn't enough air to last much longer than that."
Teal'c and Daniel looked grave but nodded. They understood the situation. "We will search for the missing team."
"And Jack," Daniel added.
"Great," Markus acknowledged. "I've already sent out some others. Let me know if you find any of them." They both left, and he motioned for the two techs to come to his side. "You can help me." Eagerly they came over carrying extra wire and tools, and soon they were making progress on putting the power grid back in order.
Markus was beginning to think they would make it, when he discovered that the main line conduit had blown too, in a secondary explosion under the stairs. Worse, it was the bridge between the live electricity from the generators above, to the lower floors and the circulation system. He needed to replace at least fifteen feet of heavy-duty conduit, or nothing he did in the other room was going to make a difference, because there would be no current to send to the proper place.
He stripped Sam's small flashlight off her vest and handed it to David. "Take this. You need to find new conduit upstairs. Try the supply room next to the generators."
David looked dubious. "To carry the load to the entire system? We don't have any big enough."
"I know that!" Markus snapped and took a deep breath, raising a hand in partial apology. "Just grab whatever you can find that'll carry something. Hurry. Go!"
They raced out of the room, and when he went back to the relay room, his gaze fell on the odd-shaped object on the floor. It was Sam's naquadah generator. If he could hook it up here, he wouldn't need the power from the upstairs generators. But could he do it alone? He knew nothing about the alien device. *Do you, Malek?*
*I know enough about naquadah power generation to fix most problems in a tel'tak or ha'tak engine. But my expertise is molecular chemistry, and I have never seen this particular device before. Together, I hope we can figure it out. First, you need to be sure it is still functional.*
Markus glanced at Sam, still lying unconscious, then walked over to it. The generator was angular, about the size of two shoe boxes, with loose wires protruding, and a rheostat and switch attached to it. He definitely couldn't just plug it into the wall.
He reached out and righted it on the floor. Something rattled and clanked within the housing.
Loose pieces could not be a good sign.
Then, taking a deep breath, he grabbed a screwdriver and started to remove the side panel. He had to at least try to fix it.
"I can do this," he muttered under his breath, to himself and to Malek. "I studied quantum mechanics after all. How many people on this whole fucking planet can say that? Not too damn many. Plus I have you. How hard can this be?"
He pulled the panel off and put it aside. There was the naquadah, glowing an eerie green in the dim light, and a long clear crystal. Something round and white rolled out. The whole configuration was totally unlike anything he had ever seen before.
Letting out a sigh, he answered his own question. "Hard."
INDEX or onto Chapter 40.