Title: Shadowland (Chapters 1-5)

Author: Misty4me

Rating: NC-17

Characters: Beckett, McKay, Sheppard, Weir, Zelenka

Pairing: Beckett/McKay

Summary: Post Trinity.

CHAPTER 1

“Tell Rodney to get his ass down here!” Sheppard held a hand over each ear as he yelled into his mouthpiece. Seawater was pouring into Desalinization Station One through one of the iris valves. “How the hell did this happen anyways?”  He could see Kavanaugh’s lips moving but the roar of the water flooding the huge bay in the lowest level of the city drowned out his words. John turned and ran back through the doorway to where the sound was a little muted and touched his earpiece, “RODNEY!”

The sight of Radek hurrying down the hall only partially distracted Sheppard from the silence that greeted his hail of the Chief Science Officer. He shoved the desire to rip McKay a new one to the back of his mind and pitched in to help the Czech and his assistant stop the city from sinking. Two hours later they were watching as Atlantis’s bilge pumps thrummed and water was sucked back out into the ocean. Radek swore and extracted himself from inside the control unit for the plant. When he stood up he handed the Colonel a dead fish. “It is ruined!”

John looked at the greenish brown creature limp in his hand then at the scientist, puzzled and more than a little annoyed.  “The control unit, not the fish.” Radek poked at the scaly beast and a cracked a small smile, “Well, the fish too.”  It was obvious from John’s expression that he wasn’t amused. The Czech shrugged. “We can rebuild once we get the water and muck and….” He gestured at the dying creature, “Charlie Tuna out.”

John tossed the mostly dead body into the receding water and stalked out, muttering Rodney’s name under his breath. He was pissed. It had taken way too long to get the valve working and that was the only reason the control unit was dead. Nothing against Radek, he was brilliant, but Rodney knew this system inside out. John was livid that their Chief Scientist couldn’t even be bothered to show his face during an emergency. He was going to set Dr. Rodney McKay straight about a few things. Apparently blowing up most of a solar system hadn’t been enough. John vowed to himself that after he was done with Rodney, that monumental ego of his would finally be small enough to fit back inside the lost city itself.

Four hours later Colonel John Sheppard was the last one to enter the conference room. He was cleaned up, changed and from the look on everyone else’s face, not the only worried member of the senior staff. 

CHAPTER 2.

Weir nodded at John as he sat beside her at the conference table.  Her eyes continued on to scan the rest of the room, stopping momentarily to rest on Radek Zelenka, who sat in Rodney's usual spot. The silent question that passed between them was answered with a minute shrug. She started the meeting without any preamble and it didn’t take anyone long to see that she wasn’t a happy woman. It was taking a lot of her diplomatic skills not to slam her hand on the table and demand an explanation at the top of her lungs. Some days it really sucked to be the head of the expedition. She was pretty sure that John and Carson didn’t have any qualms about blowing off steam in front of their personnel on occasion and God knew Rodney never kept what was on his mind close to his vest.

She sighed.  “People! Would someone please tell me how we lost our main fresh water supply unit?” Radek, Kavanaugh, Teyla, and Ronan were arrayed at one end of the table. The members of Sheppard’s team were there at his request.

Kavanaugh flushed and stayed silent, glaring at Dr. Zelenka, who finally spoke when it became clear that the other scientist wasn’t going to. “Dr. Kavanaugh was running a routine diagnostic on the plant. He forgot to shut down the water intake to the holding tank when he ran through the control sequence for the control valve. Once open past normal limits, the water pressure was too great to close the valve again.”

Elizabeth was not pleased. She knew that Kavanaugh was a brilliant physicist but he was a sloppy worker and a worse technician. Neither of those would have been a problem in academia where he would just terrorize assistants or graduate students into cleaning up after him if they wanted their degrees. She’d known any number of brilliant minds who were twice as bad. But this wasn’t a nice quiet university off in some college town like Oxford or Boston.

Some of Dr. Kavanaugh’s attitude came from his feelings that he shouldn’t be expected to do scut work like the rest of the science staff. The man really did belong in a dusty lab somewhere. The rest of it came from playing second fiddle, or really more like third or tenth, to Rodney McKay. She’d hoped that after Arcturus and Rodney’s fall from grace the other man would have changed his attitude somewhat. McKay had been taken down a peg and had been making himself scarce in the labs for the last two weeks. Radek had been running the department in his absence. She supposed that Dr. Kavanaugh had thought the position would be handed to him with Rodney out of the loop for a while. As if there had ever been a chance of that. Radek was the logical choice to take Rodney’s place for a while. She knew he was both competent and capable of handling the personnel in the science labs.

“How did this get so bad, Dr. Zelenka?” Better keep this professional with Kavanaugh nursing a grudge.

The diminutive Czech shrugged. “It took too much time to get other units offline and manually close the main intake. By then the holding tank was overflowing into the control room.

“I see.”  Elizabeth thought things over for a few seconds. She’d already known the answer but she needed to give Kavanaugh his chance to have a say. God she had a headache. She’d had one since she woke up and the loss of their main supply of potable water only made it worse.  They were all silent as she considered the situation, not bothering to hide the emotions that flashed through her mind. “Colonel, Dr. Zelenka, we are going to have to restrict water use until we know for sure what our situation is. Please make sure your people know that for the moment we are restricting showers and any other nonessential fresh water use.” The two men nodded, they had already drafted notices and were scheduling meetings with their people. “Dr. Kavanaugh, from now on you will confine your maintenance duties to non-Engineering tasks. I’ll have Major Lorne change the rotation. I’m sure he can find something for you to do.”

“That’s it, just take his word…..” The scientist was livid and he sputtered, beginning to hurl insults at her and Radek.

“DR. KAVANAUGH!” Elizabeth’s voice cut through his red haze and stopped him in midbreath. “You should leave before I dictate which duty Major Lorne assigns to you. Believe me, you do not want me doing that.” The look she leveled at the other man made him blanche. He stood and retreated, the door swooshing shut behind him, seething at what he considered yet another injustice.

“Now…” Elizabeth leveled another look at the remaining staff, “would anyone like to tell me why Dr. McKay isn’t here?”

CHAPTER 3.

 “Elizabeth, Rodney’s missing.”

John had gone straight from the bowels of the city to McKay’s lab, storming in dripping wet and filthy, his mood even worse than his appearance. He was brought up short by what had been the CSO’s lab space, now occupied by one of the new scientists brought on the Daedalus “Where is he?” The scattering of scientists and techs in the lab just stood there shocked and silent watching him drip. 

Zelenka ran in barely stopping in time to leave the Colonel standing. He swore under his breath in Czech then answered the question, “He is not here.” The Czech had been trying to catch up since the Colonel had stormed out of the ruined control room, bent on confronting Rodney. Now he slumped against the lab bench trying to catch his breath.

The new arrival, a blond man with Elvis Costello glasses looked at Sheppard in annoyance, “Dr. McKay works in a separate lab down the hall.” John stared at the man as if he’d been speaking a foreign language.

Turning his gaze on Radek he asked, “Why didn’t I know this?” Radek blinked, he’d assumed Sheppard did know. “How long?”

“Since ....”  The scientist’s hand waved absently in the air between them, an uncomfortable look settling briefly on his face. Since Arcturus.

John used the ATA gene to let himself into Rodney’s lab. It looked like his normal work station minus his laptop. Bits of Ancient Technology were scattered across table tops in a system that only McKay could understand. Judging by the dried coffee in the bottom of the mugs scattered about, Rodney hadn’t been here in a while. When they found the same thing in his living quarters a bad feeling settled in the pit of the Colonel’s stomach.

It didn’t take long to check out all of the Rodney’s favorite haunts and when they came up empty-handed, John sent out three details of men to search the sections of the city where they were living and working. In the meantime he and Radek both needed to get cleaned up. Regrouping in the Gateroom, they met up with Teyla and Ronan. Radek was working with Peter Grodin’s replacement to isolate and identify all of the lifesigns in the occupied parts of the city when John pulled him away.

“When was the last time any of you saw Rodney?”

“I believe I saw him at lunch two days ago, Colonel.” The Athosian woman gave him an odd look.

“What?”

“Nothing, Colonel.”  Before he could challenge her, Ronan spoke. “That’s the last time I saw him too, Colonel.” Ronan and Teyla had been lunching together when they saw the doctor enter, retrieve a tray and leave without saying a word to anyone except to answer one or two questions from the science staff.

Radek was trying to remember. “I am certain I spoke to him around that time. Not since.” The way it was said, it was obvious that he was surprised by the amount of time that had gone by.

“Damn.” Sheppard wasn’t happy. “That’s around the last time I remember seeing him too.”

By the time Radek had reported that every life sign was accounted for and none of them were Rodney, it was time to meet with Elizabeth.

John’s attention snapped back to the conference room. Weir had been addressing him and he’d missed whatever she said. “Sorry, Elizabeth.”

“I asked what you intended to do.”

“Find him.”

A few minutes later, Teyla finally gave in to her curiosity.  “Excuse me Dr. Weir, may I ask a question?” They’d recapped John and Radek’s efforts to find McKay and were discussing where Rodney might be, trying to determine the best strategy for locating him. The Athosian leader was confused.

“Go ahead, Teyla.”

“I do not understand the purpose of looking for Dr. McKay. Surely this is part of his punishment?”

“Punishment?” Weir’s fingers stopped, poised to continue their frustrated tapping. Cocking her head slightly and frowning she asked, “Whatever made you think Dr. McKay was being punished?’

That caught the Athosian by surprise, her confusion showing clearly in her face. “He is now a…” she cast around for the right English word and came up with the best equivalent she could, “a shadow is he not?” The words brought every movement in the room to a standstill, every face trained on her.

 “Maybe you’d better explain what you mean, Teyla.” John’s voice had taken on that calm quiet quality that meant it was an order, not a request. The rest of the faces in the room focused on her as she began to speak.

“Among the Athosians and many of the cultures we visit there is a custom. Many of us who live under the Wraith believe every life is precious, one who commits a serious offense against the community is still considered of use. It would not benefit the community to loose a member so the person becomes a shadow. We do not deny that person shelter, sustenance, even a livelihood, but no one may have anything more than necessary to do with him. No contact is allowed, no one speaks if it isn’t necessary and even then only in the most impersonal terms. Even the person’s family must treat him this way.”

“Shunning.” Elizabeth looked at the other woman, “On Earth it’s called shunning. The Amish practice it as a means of correcting those who stray from their beliefs.” Drawing on her years of experience, she explained, “It’s not done lightly. The hope is that the person, once cast out, will choose to change and live by the rules of the community again.”

Teyla nodded, “It is also true among my people. I have only seen one man shunned in my life.”

Radek had been listening but his mind began to drift back over the events of the last two weeks, the frown on his face deepening until he asked quietly, addressing the Athosian, “What happened to this man?”

Teyla Emmagen, daughter of a long line of leaders, took a deep breath and schooled her face to show no emotion, “After two of our years he took his own life.”

“NO!” John stood and glared at them. There was no way that the Atlantis expedition would treat one of their own that way.  “What made you think we were shunning McKay?”

This time it was Ronan who spoke up in his matter of fact voice. “No one talks to him unless it’s about work, goes to see him. No one eats with him, everyone calls him Dr. McKay or nothing at all. He is always last, served the worst food, left on his own.” He shrugged, “He is too valuable to you, he fixes things, understands what most don’t.”

In the silence that followed Ronan’s speech each of them ran through what they had seen and done since Arcturus. As the realization of what had gone on sank in, Teyla commented, “Only Dr. Beckett treats him like a friend.”

“Beckett!” John looked at Elizabeth and Radek. “When did he go to the mainland?”

“Later that afternoon.” Teyla had seen him off, adding a package meant for Halling and Jinto to the medical supplies the doctor would use during his stay. The Athosians were in the midst of a small outbreak of something like Earth’s measles. It was a common disease among them but hard on the children. Beckett was at the village, treating them and hoping to isolate the disease organism to eventually develop a vaccine.

Elizabeth touched her ear piece. “Dr. Beckett.”

It took a while for him to answer from the Mainland. “Aye, Dr. Weir, Beckett here. What can I do for ye.”

“Is Doctor….is Rodney with you?”

“And why would ye be askin’ me that? I havena seen Rodney since before I made this trip.” Carson’s tone had become noticeably frosty in the lengthy pause before his answer.

“We don’t seem to be able to find Rodney. We were hoping he flew to the mainland with you.”

“I see.” There was another long pause, “I’ve been here two days.”

“I'm aware of that, Doctor.”

“I’ll be back as soon as I can get my gear packed. The Athosians can handle the reset of the outbreak themselves.” He signed off before Elizabeth could protest.

********

Rodney sat outside and watched the clouds drifting across the sky.  It was a beautiful day, one that most people would appreciate. Before Arcturus he wouldn’t have thought twice about being indoors and missing it. Now, a half eaten MRE by his knee, he simply sat and watched. Nothing seemed as urgent anymore, nothing really interested him that much. He’d come here two days ago because he was running away, not running to anything.  Carson’s trip to the mainland had provided the perfect cover for getting away. Carson. He sighed to himself.

CHAPTER 4.

Sheppard watched from the doorway knowing he was unwelcome.  Carson was standing out on the balcony of his quarters, looking over the ocean, “Where are ye, Luv? What have ye bloody done now?”

“Doc…” The doctor startled at the voice and turned to find John standing in the doorway, apologetic. “I knocked but you didn’t answer.”

“And what can I do for you, Colonel Sheppard?” He didn’t bother to disguise his hostility. He’d watched them politely freeze Rodney out and now he didn’t give a bloody damn if they knew what he thought of their behavior.

John stepped outside warily, not sure he trusted his safety. Carson’s return to Atlantis had revealed a side of him that none of them had seen up to that point. It wasn’t one Sheppard relished seeing again. Beckett landed the jumper in the bay and headed for Elizabeth’s office but detoured to the conference room, following the voices.  Weir was just being informed of his arrival when he stormed in. “Two days, it took ye two bloody days to notice he was missing.” The only time anyone had seen him even remotely this angry was when they left Hoff. “Ye don’t deserve him, not a one of ye, nor yer sorry lives that he’s saved more than once.” Then he was gone and no one could think of anything else to say.

“Kate… Heightmeyer … wanted to know about Rodney’s mood the last few days before he left. I…well….”

“Ye couldn’t tell ‘Kate’ because I’m the only one in the entire city who’s given him the time of day this past fortnight.” The bitter words cut deep, they were meant to. Carson wasn’t ordinarily a spiteful man but he’d watched as Rodney fell apart and there was only so much he could do. Before Sheppard could respond, Beckett continued, “Did you know he considered you his best friend Colonel. He told me he’d never had one before.”

“Right, that’s why he almost got me killed.” John’s defenses were up.

Carson found himself wanting to smack away the cynical sneer and he didn’t like feeling that way. Instead he gripped the railing and spoke quietly. “You disappoint me, Colonel.”

That finally did it for John. His anger at the whole mess surfaced. He wanted to say that none of this was his fault. Rodney had been the one who set it all in motion. “He used our friendship.” It came out cold and emotionless because he couldn’t get the words out any other way. It was true, John had felt used. Not because Rodney had asked for his backing or even because the experiment has failed. It was that blind refusal to stop and take a step back, to listen to what anyone else was saying that had left him feeling betrayed. It was supposed to be a partnership between all of them. It had to be or they wouldn’t survive. But when it really counted, when Radek had come to him with the data that said it would be a disaster, when he’d promised Elizabeth he could do it, when he’d argued right down to the last second that he could make it work and had put both their lives… hell, put all of Atlantis and the Daedalus in danger, Rodney McKay had ripped that partnership apart. He couldn’t even shut up in the jumper and trust John to do his job. With disaster seconds away he had treated John as if he was too stupid to know the danger they were in.

Carson looked at John, about to bite back, but as quickly as Sheppard’s anger had flared, the doctor’s died. “Aye, I suppose it looks that way. But you have to know that it cost him a lot to ask for your support?”

“What? So I should just let it go?”

“No. Yes. Look, Colonel…” Carson turned to lean his back against the railing, “Maybe I’m biased because he and I are…well, close. But it seems to me that there’s a big difference between someone who sets out to manipulate you to get what they want, and someone who asks you to have faith in them. I guess it comes down to which you think Rodney did.”

“I think he blew off the people who were supposed to have his six.” Sheppard was good at using anger to cover other feelings. They taught you that in the military, how to draw on your basest emotions for strength. Too bad this wasn’t war.

So that’s it, what this is really about for him. “Aye, he did and maybe he needed this failure to make him see that he’s only human, that he can be wrong, that he needs to lean on others.” Carson had turned back to the railing and was looking out over the ocean again. “But you know, Colonel, it might be a good thing if people recognized that all the time, not just when he fails.” Carson kept talking to the night sky, missing the look of confusion on Sheppard’s face. “Do ye know how many nights he lies awake, worrying that the next time he won’t have a miracle to pull out of his bag when we’re all standing there looking at him?”

“Rodney, insecure?” He wasn’t used to thinking of Rodney that way and it was making his head pound. The moon was up, so it was late. They would be up searching early. He really needed to head for bed.

“Aye, but don’t ever let him hear you put it that way.” Carson’s shoulders tensed. “He wasna trying to prove he’s smarter than the Ancients, you know. It was about wanting a weapon against the Wraith pure and simple, not about being a hero. He’s scared, John. Sometimes, when people are scared they make mistakes. Just like you, just like me.”

The weight of thousands of lives hung in the air between them, making it impossible to speak. Finally, Carson broke the silence, “Do ye think he’s still alive?” It was a thought none of them had been willing to voice even though they knew that the longer Rodney McKay was missing, the less likely it was that the astrophysicist was coming back.

“It’s only been three days, Carson. We’ll find him.”  He risked a hand on the other man’s shoulder. “How….close…are the two of you?” It wasn’t his business, not really, but it seemed like someone should know.

“Close enough.”

***

Setting up the lifesigns sensors so they sent back a false signal had been easy for Rodney. The section of the city he was in would look deserted. If he was going to be alone, he’d rather it be by himself, not in a crowd. Being an outsider wasn’t anything new to Rodney; his genius had isolated him very young. He worked his way through the rooms on the corridor, cataloging what he found and any damage that needed to be repaired. It looked like this section had been mixed use, some residential and some light sciences. There also appeared to be an art studio. He hadn’t thought of the Ancients as being into art. You didn’t see a lot of it in the city.

By noon he was hungry and stopped outside on one of the balconies to eat another MRE. It had never bothered him that people wondered how he could like them. It was all perspective. When you grew up in the slums with parents who didn’t have money for food most days, you learned to eat what was put in front of you. In his case, he learned to eat peanut butter a lot. It was safe and meant no trips to the hospital, no dying because his parents couldn’t afford to keep an epi-pen on hand.

He patted his pocket unconsciously, checking.

Ford used to kid him about the MREs. Aiden’s grandmother had raised him on a diet of homecooked meals like meatloaf, chicken with dumplings, grits and gravy. The food was the one thing the Lieutenant had hated about the military. Rodney’s mother had raised him on whatever was cheapest or out of date, or being thrown out in the dumpster behind the grocers. Ford had finally shut up after Rodney once told him that they were safe and a damn site better than ketchup on white bread.

The meal in front of him was only half gone and he was full. That happened a lot lately.  The last time he’d lost his appetite was the day the social worker came to pick him up. He could still remember his mother crying. “It will be better for you, you’ll see, sweetheart.” Now he understood, but back then all he knew was that his parents didn’t want him. He barely ate for weeks, almost ending up in the hospital. Then Child Services had placed him with foster parents who were on faculty at a university, and wasn’t that heaven? At ten he was hopelessly out of place but at least there was enough food and classes that challenged him. So he grew up surrounded by adults who were, by turns overwhelmed, awed, jealous, amused, or put off by his genius. The only thing missing was friends.

He headed inside and back to the last corridor he’d been scouting, the half eaten meal forgotten. Yet another gray metal door slid open on a thought. “Finish this corridor today and maybe tomorrow come back to take a closer look at the labs.” He’d started talking to himself a lot without realizing it. After a few more days of cataloging corridor after corridor, taking readings and entering data on his laptop, he started talking to Carson and Zelenka as well.

CHAPTER 5.

Radek scanned sensors all over the city, looking for life signs but there were none. Sheppard sent out patrols daily into the unoccupied sections where they knew the systems had been damaged during the Wraith attack. There was no way to stow away on a jumper without being noticed so he had to be somewhere in Atlantis, at least it seemed that way, but each day that they had nothing to report Elizabeth would stand outside and stare at the ocean, wondering.

 “It’s been two weeks. There are other things that need attention too.” John and Carson were back out on the balcony of the doctor’s quarters; once again Carson was looking out over the water but it was daytime and Sheppard could see the white knuckles as he voiced the conclusion that everyone was coming too.  They’d searched the city and surveyed the mainland by puddlejumper. There had been no signs. Elizabeth had reluctantly told John it was time to shift resources back to their mission.

“You’re giving up on him!” John stopped her on the stairs, furious. Lowering his voice to a hiss, “He would never give up on any of us!” From the looks on their faces Teyla, Ronan and Zelenka agreed.

“We can’t put things on hold forever, John. The Wraith aren’t going to hold off attacking or stop their culling because we’re missing a scientist.”

John slammed his hand on the wall. “Elizabeth, this is Rodney we’re talking about!”

“And you think I don’t know that?!” She stormed up the steps, dragging them in her wake. When the conference room doors were closed, she rounded on him, “You think I don’t regret every time I passed him in the hallways and called him ‘Dr. McKay’? That I don’t know how petty that was? That I stopped having meals with him or dropping by the lab once in a while?” For a moment she was dangerously close to tears and they stared at one another in the echoing silence of everyone’s guilt. Then she pulled herself back, took a deep breath and looked Sheppard in the eye. “I’m not saying we stop looking, but that isn’t all we do. We have to get on with our job.”

“I’ll tell Carson.” He wasn’t going to let this come from Weir.

The relationship had come as a big surprise to many, though they hadn’t tried to hide anything. It was still new and tentative when Arcturus had happened. Sheppard was put out that Rodney hadn’t said anything to him, but then there really hadn’t been much chance. He’d figured they would deal with that when the physicist was back. In the meantime he took it upon himself to keep an eye on Carson, making a point of being with Beckett as much as possible. When he couldn’t there were no end of volunteers to fill in, especially the oldtimers. Even if many Atlanteans didn’t warm up to Rodney McKay, they were overly fond of his lover. Helping him cope was small thanks for the lives saved over the last year. And of course, there was the guilt.

John told Carson then came back later, after the yelling and being thrown out, the angry bitter accusations, the tears barely held in check. He stood in the doorway of Beckett’s balcony, watching as the moonlight fell across the sleeping doctor, curled on his side, a pillow hugged to him to fill in the emptiness where McKay should have been.  Eventually he pulled up a chair next to the bed and sat, sleepless, keeping watch.

Rodney scanned what he could see of the room and decided it looked more like some sort of mechanic’s bay than anything else. There were racks lined up that looked as though they were meant to cradle some sort of large device. The room was set up to hold five of something that looked like it might be roughly the size of a puddlejumper. Maybe that’s what it was, the Atlantis equivalent of Bill and Earl’s Garage.

Atlantis had become monotonous, lab after lab, all the same. This at least was interesting, but walking the length of the room and back had tired him out.  Staring up into the high shadows, Rodney could see what looked like tools and extensible arms mounted to the ceiling. His eyes lit up at the thought of equipment designed to work on the compact spacecraft. “What do you think of this, Radek? No more squeezing underneath.”  And then damn, the realization that he’d slipped again shook him and he cursed. Instead of helping, the longer he stayed away, the more he longed for their company. He’d only meant to leave for a few days, a week at the most, thinking it would be easier to build back up his defenses if there weren’t other people around. His mind had other ideas and his thoughts kept dragging him back to the people who he’d gotten close to. The more it happened the more desperate he was becoming, knowing that if he didn’t find a way to shut them out it meant going back to Earth and that just wasn’t something he could face

I was such a cliché, but Atlantis was a dream. Cheyenne Mountain, Antarctica, even Siberia had seemed like heaven because of the stargates and the Ancient technology. But Atlantis…my God, walking into Atlantis had been so breathtaking it was beyond his capacity for words.  To stand in the city of the Ancients, surrounded by their technology was beyond anything he’d ever hoped to experience. No one understood. As much as he swore and complained about the Ancients and their obscure technology, about how they’d just packed up and left without really explaining anything, living in Atlantis was the first time in his life he’d really felt mentally alive and the thought of leaving that behind was unbearable. He sank to the floor and rubbed shaky hands across wet eyes. Dammit! I will find a way!

The catwalk to the top still didn’t take Rodney high enough to examine the tools mounted on the ceiling. He tried thinking them down, but that didn’t work. The only solution was to climb the framework. Groaning and cursing, panting, he pulled himself up the last struts and wedged his body in between two supports. The room swung around him in crazy arcs and he laid his forehead on the cool metal long enough to let it settle back in place. The scanner showed that everything was powered down and it was probably going to take contact to initialize anything.

Leaning out he managed to snag one of the reticulated arms and wrestle it closer. The tool on the end looked like a probe of some sort. Laying the scanner on a nearby beam so he could watch the readout, Rodney placed his hands on what looked like grips on either side of the device. It came to life with a jerk, and he found himself pulled out of his perch with a force that sent a wave of pain through both shoulders. The arm moved down toward the center of the cradle searching back and forth, Rodney dangling off the end. Each abrupt change of direction jerked his shoulders and threatened his tenuous grip. Each approach to the side of the cradle slammed his body into the heavy metal beams meant to support the bottom of a jumper. Rodney hung on, knowing he would never survive the 40 foot fall to the floor. With one last jerk the arm retracted, pulling him back up towards the ceiling. His shoulders screamed in agony as he tried to hold out until he would be taken back up to where he started. He was only feet away when his hands finally gave out and he let go falling into the cradle, landing on the struts that supported the center. Ribs give way as his weight drove him hard against the metalwork. The pain had just started to ease when gravity gave up it’s tenuous hold and he slid off backwards. Each impact send new agony through him as he bounced off of one beam then another. The final jolt sent him into oblivion, leaving his body just a senseless heap on the floor.