Stargate Atlantis: Darts

The lower city

Both men rushed to the railing and stared down into the hazy distance of the lower city.  A very small plume of smoke could be seen.

"That shouldn't have happened! Couldn't have happened!" spluttered Rodney.

"Well, it did," John said, quietly. "We need to get down there," he said, more decisively.  "I think that's the area Stackhouse gave a once-over a couple of months ago. Nothing particularly interesting, power only intermittent."

"Well, there must be some power down there!" said Rodney. "The dart must have hit an exposed power cable or something!"

"We'll find out and we'll fix it," Sheppard said firmly. "Let's get what you'll need from your lab and then get kitted up."

"Oh, not tac vests on a day like this," complained Rodney. "It'll be like wearing our own personal ovens."

"SOP, McKay," said John. "We just don't know enough about what's down there."

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Sheppard stood, peering through his binoculars, trying to trace out a route through the towers and walkways of the lower city.

The two men had transported as near to their destination as they could, bearing in mind the limited power in that area of the city.  When they stepped out of the transporter they were surprised at the change in the weather.  The sky was no longer a burnished blue-gold, but had changed to a threatening grey. The wind buffeted them as they made their way to a small lookout platform and they could see the ocean was beginning to rise into white peaks.

"Looks like a storm coming in," commented McKay.

"Yeah, party's over, I guess," said Sheppard, taking out his binoculars.  He could see in the distance a small, squat tower from where the plume of smoke had come.  There was a door at the base of the tower and a viewing platform about halfway up from where there was still a faint drift of smoke.  Between the two points there was a narrow walkway, winding its way around various low buildings and areas where there was a short drop to the ocean.

"Let's go," said Sheppard, setting off down a flight of stairs and beginning to jog lightly along the walkway.

"Why do we have to run everywhere?" puffed McKay, beneath the weight of his pack, stuffed with equipment.

**********************************

Arriving at the base of the tower, they suffered a setback. The walkway led directly to the door, a railing either side and then a drop into the water, but there was obviously no way the door was going to open.

"Warped," said Sheppard.

"Badly," said Rodney, studying the opening closely. "Must have been one of the areas outside the shield failure when we first arrived."

John looked up.  Fat raindrops began to fall onto his upturned face.  "The balcony's not that high; I think we can climb that," he said.  He looked at the railing at the edge of the walkway, then a shallow shelf a metre or so above that and then decorative mouldings covering the remaining few metres before the railing edging their target balcony.  The top half of the wall began to curve gently inwards, making the tower pepperpot-shaped.

"Climb?" squeaked Rodney. "I don't do climbing, Sheppard!  And how would we climb that, anyway?"

"Well, I'd climb up to that shelf there and you'd climb up me and I could boost you up the rest of the way," said Sheppard. "Sound like a plan?"

"It sounds like a completely insane plan!" replied Rodney.

"Well, we need to get up there McKay, so that's what we're doing," he said, adjusting his P90 in its sling so that it fell across his back.

John hopped up onto the top of the railing, then pulled himself up onto the narrow shelf.  He leaned against the wall and gestured to Rodney.

"Come on, the first bit's easy."

"Easy? Huh!" Rodney grumbled. "And I've got this great big pack."

It began to rain harder.

"Great. Now it'll be slippery too," Rodney muttered.

"Come on, McKay!" John said, impatiently.

Rodney carefully climbed each rung of the railings and then, both hands against the wall, gingerly stood on the broader top rail.  He slowly straightened up, not feeling at all safe, and reached up for the shelf where John was standing.

"That's it, now get one foot up on the shelf and I'll give you a hand," encouraged John.

He reached down and grabbed the loop on the back of Rodney's tac vest and as Rodney heaved himself up, John pulled hard until Rodney was up on the shelf beside him.

"There, that wasn't so bad, was it?" he said.

Rodney, leaning into the wall as far as he could, grimaced weakly.

"Right, here's what we're going to do now," said John. "I'm going to give you a leg-up onto my shoulder and if you lean into the wall and reach for the railing up there, I'll give you a boost up, OK?"

"OK," whimpered Rodney.

"OK, then, here goes." John made a step with his hands and Rodney squirmed as close as he could and gingerly put his foot in John's hands.  As he pushed down, John heaved his weight up. Rodney reached up with his foot for John's shoulder, trying to lean most of his weight into the sloping wall.

He didn't quite make it. He just about got one foot on John's shoulder, then lost his balance, panicked and his foot slipped, tearing John's T-Shirt at the shoulder and scraping down his arm. Rodney fell and would have ended up in the water but John grabbed hold of his vest and forced him into the wall until he'd regained his balance.

"Sorry!" said Rodney, eyes closed.

"That's OK," said John.  "Now let's take a few deep breaths and then we'll try again."

This time the plan was successful, if not particularly stylish and at the cost of some of John's hair where Rodney felt himself wobbling and grabbed hold of it.  Rodney managed to stand on John's shoulders, leaning against the inward sloping wall and by reaching up as far as he could and receiving another boost from John's hands, Rodney got hold of the railings above himself and puffed, scrambled and heaved his way up and over the top.

He leant back over the railings and looked down at John, still breathing heavily.  John looked up and saw Rodney's face against the looming grey sky, his hair whipping in the increasing wind.

"Your turn!" called Rodney.