by Martha Wells
Teyla stepped to John's side to cover the growing opening, but their lights showed the chamber inside was empty. John moved to the doorway, and soft white recessed lights came on in the ceiling, revealing a space that would have been just big enough to slide the jumper into, if the door had been large enough. The walls were tinted the same blue-green as the outer door, and the floor embossed with strips of dull silver metal. There was another sealed triangular door just opposite, and a steady breeze.
Rodney held out a hand to feel the air flow, frowning. "It's pressurized." He looked at his tablet. "I'm reading close to twenty-two percent oxygen."
"Well, we knew the power was on." John stepped cautiously into the room, signaling the others to stay back. This was the part where he made sure the inner door was going to open and the outer wasn't going to shut and trap them inside. He crossed the room, pausing to hold a hand up in front of a silver disk set into the wall. Close up it still looked solid, but it was emitting a strong flow of air. "This is a vent."
"But the power should have been on standby," Rodney objected from the doorway behind him. "That's how Ancient systems work. And there hasn't been time to pressurize this entire structure."
Zelenka added, "Perhaps the system detected the jumper's landing, and restored atmosphere to this section only."
"But why should it?" Rodney waved a hand, still frowning. "This isn't a landing pad, it's a foot entrance. If there's a jumper bay, it should be accessed through the roof."
"Atlantis was pressurized when we arrived," Miko pointed out hesitantly.
"Well, yes, I know that," Rodney said acidly, "But-"
John tuned out the debate, touching the wall console next to the inner door. It slid open to reveal a corridor, gently curved to follow the shape of the building. The lights came smoothly up, giving the dark blue stone a soft glow. John stepped in, feeling the strong flow of air as the open door behind him created a breeze, the lower pressure sucking out the air inside. The rounded ceiling was about twelve feet high. "Looks good so far."
The others followed him in, Rodney pausing to shut the outside door. John eyed him. "That a good idea?"
Rodney shook the tablet at him. "I have no idea why, but this building appears to be pressurized. We can save the air in our tanks for emergencies and exploring outside."
"Okay." John drew the word out, making Rodney glare at him, but John had to admit he had a point. An hour wasn't a long time to explore a building this size, and for all they knew it could take them that long just to find a lab or monitoring equipment.
John shut off his breathing set, pulling his mask down as the others followed suit. The air didn't smell dusty or musty or of anything except empty stone hallways. "So where to now?" he asked.
"Good question." Rodney glanced up from his detector with a thoughtful frown. "Let's try this way."
John put Ronon on their six again, and took the lead with Teyla, following the curve of the corridor. After a few minutes walk, John could see a section ahead where the cool white light took on an unhealthy red tint. "Rodney, do you see that?" he asked warily.
Rodney peered down the corridor. "The quality of the light? Yes, it's probably not a good sign."
"A good sign of what?" Zelenka asked a little ner vously.
"How the hell should I know?" Rodney said in frustration.
They reached the edge of the red shadows and John stopped, shining the P-90's light over the floor. Nothing seemed different. Ronon, who was tall enough that his head was almost even with the bottom of the nearest light fixture, stepped close to the wall, frowning. He said, "It's a plant. It's grown over the light."
He lifted a hand and John said sharply, "Don't touch it!" He realized a moment later the entire group had shouted the same words practically in unison. He shook his head. It was a good thing they hadn't been trying to sneak up on something.
Ronon stopped, looking back at them with a lifted brow. "It's just a plant."
Rodney rolled his eyes. "Yes, well, when your skin falls off, let us know."
"Alien plants can be very dangerous, and not just ifyou ingest them," Zelenka added more reasonably. "There were the flowers on PX5-237, that gave Sergeant Bates those nasty bites."
Miko nodded. "Yes, the mold on PX3-58 1, that tried to chase Sergeant Stackhouse through the Stargate."
Teyla winced. "I remember that well."
Ronon frowned at the fuzzy growth and stepped back carefully.
John moved forward, his light revealing more patches of the stuff. "It's like that algae we keep getting in the city, in the rooms below the waterline." The lowest levels of Atlantis had been flooded in the early stages of the catastrophic storm that had hit the city in their first year there. Even with all the repairs they had been able to make and the restored power from the new ZPM, those sections were still uncomfortably damp and subject to occasional weird growths.
Teyla nodded. "Very like. And it seems to be all over these walls. Should we take a sample for the botanists?"
"Screw the botanists," Rodney said impatiently. "The gigantic Quantum Mirror that could kill us where we stand is our top priority at the moment."
"Rodney, just calm down, we're getting there," John said pointedly.
After about fifty more yards, Rodney said suddenly, "Stop." His voice was tight with tension. John halted in step with Teyla, scanning the corridor ahead. Rodney continued, "I'm getting a life sign flicker. Something small." He turned the detector, then pointed, his eyes still on the screen. "On that wall."
In another instant their lights found it. It was a dull red lumpy knobby thing, about the size of a dinner plate, flattened against the wall. P-90 raised, John took a cautious step toward it, squinting, trying to get a better look. He could tell it had short stubby tentacles that it was using to cling to the wall; it looked a little like an octopus that had suffered multiple amputations. He said, "That's... ugly."
"Shouldn't you be shooting it?" Rodney wanted to know.
Watching it carefully, Teyla pointed out, "It is not attacking us. I do not even think it knows we are here."
"Yes, but it might attack," Rodney said in exasperation. "Granted, it doesn't seem to have any legs, or arms, but-"
"What if we kill this one and that antagonizes the whole herd or whatever, and they attack us?" John said, taking another cautious step closer.
Rodney huffed in annoyance. "Oh, fine. I see your point."
The wall here was thickly covered with the algae-like reddish growth, and the octopus had attached itself right in the middle of it. John didn't want to kill the thing if it was harmless, but he needed to find out if it was safe to just ignore it.
He stepped close enough to the wall to get a better view of its head, staying well out of the short tentacle range. It looked like its mouth was a big pad, which it was using to suck the red growth off the wall. As John watched, one big purple eye opened and rolled to study him. Its stubby tentacles tightened protectively on its stretch of wall and it edged away from him a little. "It's sucking up the algae," he reported, stepping back. "I think we'd be a little much for it."
Teyla frowned, playing her light over the walls. "But if this building has been sealed since the Ancients departed, how did it get in?"
"There could be a door open somewhere," Ronon answered, still watching the corridor behind them.
"But this section must be sealed, or it couldn't stay pressurized," Zelenka told him. He looked a little jumpy, and was clutching his tablet protectively to his chest, but other than that he seemed to be doing okay so far. "Even if the air system was somehow activated by the jumper's arrival."
"No, this building was open at some point." Rodney squinted uneasily at the creature. "Maybe the Mirror's energy discharges triggered some sort of reactivation of the installation's systems, and it sealed and pressurized itself."
"Let's just leave the wall-octopus alone," John concluded, and they kept moving.
A little past that section, John almost walked by the
tall triangle embossed into the inner wall, thinking it was just decorative. Rodney stopped abruptly. "Wait, wait. Does this look like another door?"
"Not really." John came back to contemplate it. It had a narrow blue-green metal frame, and there was a smaller triangle set in the center panel.
"I wasn't talking to you. Well?" he demanded.
Zelenka was already examining the edge of the embossed area, shining his flashlight into the minute cracks. "These are seams, so this whole piece may lift up, but why no wall console?"
His face intent, Rodney laid a hand flat on the center triangle. There was a faint pop of displaced air as the door started to slide upward. Rodney flinched back, then caught Zelenka by his jacket and pulled him out of the way. John jerked up his weapon to cover the opening, Teyla and Ronon stepping up behind him. But the space inside was empty, a stairwell with a wide set of steps spiraling upward. "This is interesting," Rodney said, preoccupied.
Still covering the corridor, Ronon asked, "Why?"
It was Miko who said, "There is no wall console, so only someone with the Ancient gene could open the door."
"It's probably security feature," Zelenka added, a little uneasily. "They didn't want just anyone to access the Mirror controls, perhaps."
John stepped into the stairwell, looking up. The lights had come on, but he couldn't see anything but stairs. Teyla stepped in to look, pointing out, "It would also keep out the Wraith."
"Good point." John glanced at Rodney. "Up? Or keep going around?"
Rodney had taken the tablet away from Zelenka and now waved it and the life signs detector in frustration. "I have no idea. In this one instance, your guess is as good as mine.
John lifted a brow, exchanged a look with Teyla, then said, "Right. Let's try up."
On the first landing there was a doorway that opened into what seemed to be an empty shaft. It had tiny blue lights set in narrow silver bands running down the sides, and seemed to lead straight down to the floor below. "The elevator's broken?" John suggested, leaning out to look down. Teyla stretched around the other side, shining her light down the shaft.
"Ali, better not to put your heads in there," Zelenka said, studying the tablet. "I'm getting a low-level energy signature."
As John eased away from the opening and Teyla stepped back, Rodney snatched the tablet again. "Wait, wait, wait. This looks like..." Brow furrowed thoughtfully, Rodney pulled a pen out of his tac vest and tossed it through the opening. It hung in midair for a moment, then vanished.
Rodney and Zelenka had their eyes on the tablet's screen, watching it analyze the readings, with Miko craning her neck to see over Zelenka's shoulder. John and Teyla stared at the spot where the dematerialized pen had been. "Hope you didn't need that," Ronon commented dryly.
"Why would this be on the stairwell where anyone might stumble in?" Teyla asked, sounding mildly horrified.
"It's not a walk-in disintegrator, if that's what you're thinking," Rodney said, still thoughtful. "Hold it, let's try this." He took out a small pocket flashlight, clicked it on, and tossed it into the shaft. It vanished. Rodney leaned cautiously out to look down. "The energy signature is almost identical to the transporters on Atlantis, and this is the right location for a safety shaft. See, there it is."
John looked. Down at the bottom, right about the level of the first floor, was the gleam of the flashlight. "Cool. So it's a transporter-safety exit." And the fact that the Ancients had seen a need for it.. .probably didn't mean anything good.
Going up, they found three more levels, though the topmost wasn't nearly high enough to be at the top of the structure. There were obviously more levels that this stairwell didn't access, that there had to be another way to get to.
Looking at the interior rooms, John could see the walls were unusually thick, much thicker than they had to be to support the weight of the building. "They built this place to last," he commented to Rodney, as Zelenka and Kusanagi scanned a room they had found off one of the landings. Every piece of equipment seemed to have been removed, like the ruined city on the base moon.
"Yes, I suspect they anticipated frequent quakes from the discharges," Rodney said, mouth twisted as he studied the readings on his tablet.
John's brows quirked. "So...the Mirror was probably unstable even back when they built this place?" They had heard another couple of low rumbles, but nothing close to the size of the first discharge.
"Yes. Doesn't bode well, does it," Rodney said with a grimace.
Zelenka rejoined them, tucking his equipment back into his pack. "They certainly didn't leave in a hurry," he said tiredly, wiping sweat off his brow. "Everything was removed, very carefully."
"Except the Mirror," Teyla put in. Ronon was watching the corridor and she was standing on the landing, keeping a cautious eye on the stairs.
"And either the instability caused it to activate," Rodney said, his eyes on his tablet screen. "Or another reality accessed it."
"So something could come through that thing anytime," Ronon asked, flicking an uneasy look at Teyla.
"Yes. Anything, at anytime," Rodney said, snapping his tablet shut. "Did I not make that abundantly clear before?"
"You did," John told him. "But standing next to it and knowing that adds a little extra drama."
As they continued, they found more empty rooms that could have been labs or control areas, and a section of transparent wall filled with bundles of crystal conduit. John saw the seams in the floor by accident, his light catching one when the others had stopped to take readings again. It was just to one side of a broad blue-green band that he had thought was just more floor decoration. The bands lay about every ten yards along the corridor. Signaling the others to halt, John went back to look at the last two bands, checking for seams. As he returned, Rodney came over, asking, "What the hell are you doing?"
John knelt beside a band, shining his light on the seam. "What does that look like?"
"That's just a decorative-Oh, wait." Rodney dropped to a crouch, frowning as he ran his fingers along the little gap. "This is a door, a blast door. It must come up from the floor-"
Teyla stepped closer, eyeing the floor uneasily, as John said tightly, "They're all along this corridor, and from the size of the bands, the doors are a good foot thick. We don't have any tools that could cut through this. And yeah, we have C-4, but the space we'd be trapped in is too small; we couldn't blow the wall without killing ourselves. If they close for some reason, like another explosion, we'd be screwed."
"Of course we'd be screwed, we're always screwed," Rodney said, annoyed. "What do you want me to do about it?"
"I don't know," John snapped. "You tell me."
Rodney said rapidly, "Look, there's been minor discharges since we discovered this structure and the doors are still open. Either it takes a bigger energy burst to activate them, or after the danger is past, they open automatically." His mouth twisted as he thought that through. "If the power failed temporarily, we would... probably have enough air to survive."
"Right." John considered going back. But if they did that, they might as well pretend the damn Mirror didn't exist at all and just leave. It wasn't going to get any safer to do this. He said reluctantly, "We'll keep going."
"Good," Rodney said, though his expression showed he knew exactly how wrong this could go. John looked up to see Zelenka and Kusanagi looking down with anxious faces. He suppressed the impulse to tell them it was going to be okay. He had said that too many times when the outcome had been anything but okay. He just said, "We need to move faster."
Zelenka said, "Of course, yes." Kusanagi just nodded sharply, though she looked terrified.
After that they stopped checking the empty labs, just glancing in and scanning briefly to make certain nothing useful had been left behind. They had passed two more open stairwells and John estimated that they had traveled three quarters of the way around the structure's circumference when they came to a sealed doorway in the inner wall. "I have a good feeling," Zelenk
a said, scanning it thoughtfully. "All the other empty labs were left open."
"Try it," John said, hoping this was it. "We're due a little luck here."
"Hold that thought," Rodney muttered darkly. He took one last look at the life signs detector, waved Zelenka out of the way, and touched the triangle in the center of the door.
It started to slide up and he stepped quickly aside so John and Teyla could cover the opening.
Bingo, John thought, as the door revealed a stretch of wall with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out at the Quantum Mirror. He stepped inside cautiously, Teyla following. It was a long room, curved to follow the inner wall, and there were three banks of consoles set in the center of the floor, all of them blue-green metal with the familiar crystal touchpads and controls. "Yeah, this could be it."
"Finally," Rodney growled, striding in. As the others followed, John stepped to the window. It was curved outward into a bubble, the outside streaked with red dust. He didn't have much perspective on how big the structure was from this vantage point. The dark curve of the building was like a stadium, the Quantum Mirror the playing field.
The black surface of the Mirror itself wasn't visible, which was kind of a relief. The dull silver-gray wall of the naquadah frame was high enough to block any view of it. John could see the frame was jointed, as if it had been laid down in sections, each about the length of a train's boxcar. Surrounding it was a large open plaza of dark blue pavement. Rodney stepped up beside him. "Yes. Yes, yes, yes. This could be the control center." He turned back toward the banks of consoles.
"No, no, this is for monitoring," Zelenka was saying, pacing back and forth between the consoles and the port, as if torn between which he wanted to examine first.
John noticed that the roof of the structure had some kind of narrow projection sticking out over the inner area. He put a hand on the top edge of the port and leaned out into the bubble, trying to get a better view. It looked as if it was just an extension of the roof. He thought he could see silver ribbing embedded in it and wondered if it was recording data of some kind from the Mirror, or if it was somehow part of the energy shielding. He made a mental note to direct Rodney's attention to it once Rodney was done exclaiming hysterically over the consoles.