TITLE: In or Out
E-MAIL: eli @ popullus.net
RATING: PG
POSTED: April 8, 2005
NOTES: The shield over Atlantis doesn't solve all of Atlantis' problems. Written for the SGA Flashfic "38 Minutes" challenge (written in under 38 minutes).
DISCLAIMER: Read
"How do we get through the shield?"
"...and Radek wants to gi--" McKay blinked. "Give it a..." A headshake came with another blink. "What?"
"Major...?"
Weir's eyebrows were climbing, and a glance around the table showed a whole lot of outright surprise or concerned curiosity on everyone's faces.
John bit back a wince. Definitely could've used fifteen minutes downtime, or even five, sometime in the last thirty-two hours, he admitted; thinking a thought and speaking that thought really shouldn't be simultaneous actions.
He'd said it, though, so he leaned forward in his chair and deliberately shifted to direct his question at McKay.
"Once the shield is up, how do we get through it without taking it down?" he asked slowly, spacing each word out so there couldn't be any doubt about what he meant.
"Why would you--?" McKay's face twisted into a baffled frown and his hands cupped, forming a rigid bubble in the air over the table. "You don't get through it; it's a shield. The point is things not getting through. That's what's so nice about it."
John concentrated on giving McKay a tight smile as a much preferable alternative to snapping. "I know that. But the Ancients had to have hooked up a code or something, so that a 'jumper can get through without having to take the whole thing down, right?"
"That is what the 'gate is for," Zelenka pointed out, his frown just as confused as McKay's.
"There isn't a 'gate on the mainland," John said flatly.
Teyla sat up straighter.
"No..."
John looked around to see Weir's eyes narrow.
"No, there isn't," she said, the full weight of that fact in her voice. Her lips tightened briefly, and John could almost see the options considered and discarded before she nodded once and clasped her hands in front of her on the table. "Rodney, how far will the shield extend?"
McKay's eyes were just as narrow, but his jaw was set and his head was stuck in a fast side-to-side pattern.
"No," he said. "Yes, it's a fresh ZPM. Yes, it's almost as good as new. But no, there is no way to get it to--"
"That would render the field practically useless," Zelenka broke in. "The farther it expands, the--"
"We try to stretch it too thin and we'll be right back where we started," McKay cut him off with a harsh laugh. "And won't that be fun?"
"So my people will...remain unprotected?" Teyla asked, calm but with an edge that Weir immediately responded to.
"Oh, no. No," she repeated. "They can come back to the city. We have more than enough room, and with the shield in place, the entire city is available for your people to choose any location."
That didn't get a serene smile of gratitude, though.
"I doubt they will wish to return to the city, Doctor Weir," Teyla said with a sigh. "Perhaps some of the younger ones, yes, but as a people, we are far more comfortable on land than surrounded by even the metal of the Ancestors."
He hadn't thought about it in those terms, exactly, but yeah. "So we need a way to get back and forth through the shield," John said, bringing them back to the point.
McKay's mouth was open, but there wasn't anything coming out of it.
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