The Lost

Chapter Thirty-one: Beneath the Surface

The water was relentlessly cold, a full-body punch that made Lorne’s hands cramp almost as soon as he left the jumper. Dry suits made the dive bearable, but he had to wear light enough gloves to be able to do the actual repairs. He turned slowly in the water, making sure that Campbell and Green were ready to follow him, and then kicked off from the jumper’s side. They were both avid divers, while Lorne felt this wasn’t really his idea of a great way to spend the day.

Below them, Lieutenant Miller was holding the jumper steady, its lights turned upward to illuminate the underside of the pier. It had been tempting to use the jumper’s shield to create a bubble of air for them to work in; it would have meant they could stay down longer without worrying about the cold. It would also have meant trying to keep the jumper steady right under the part of the city they were trying to repair. The idea was to avoid doing any more damage.

Green was carrying a video camera, and she flipped it on as they approached the damaged section of the hull. They’d been down here with a camera mounted on the jumper to take video of the damage, and Zelenka had identified three sensor arrays that needed to be switched out. They’d brought all three replacements down with them, hoping not to have to do this again.

“I am receiving your transmission,” Zelenka said. “Major Lorne, are you ready to proceed?”

Lorne leaned into the camera’s field of view and gave a thumbs-up. He and Campbell approached the first damaged sensor array, steadying themselves on either side. The camera’s light was at a bad angle, throwing more shadows than anything; he took hold of Green’s arm and pushed her gently back, getting the light where he needed it.

Campbell unfastened the first replacement from the back of Lorne’s suit. It wasn’t that big, a metal box with a sensor vane on one side, and on the other side, a row of control crystals that should slide into place easily once they got the damaged one out of the way. Or so Dr. Zelenka said.

“You can see the mechanical damage to the sensor array,” Zelenka said. He certainly could. The sensor vane was crumpled, and one corner of the box was twisted up out of alignment with the city’s hull. “I’ve deactivated the power to the array, so try to gently pry it free. Gently, please.”

Lorne found a screwdriver in one of his suit’s pockets and pried at the other corners. He wasn’t sure he was exactly being gentle, but he was making some progress. He wrapped his fingers around it and tugged, hoping it didn’t come free quickly enough to send him tumbling. It was possible he should clip on to something to brace himself, but he didn’t see anything to clip onto other than the sensor vane itself, which wasn’t very helpful.

Green swiveled suddenly in the water, the video camera turning with her and throwing the box in front of him into shadow.

“What are you doing?” Zelenka said into his radio. Lorne spread his hands, but since Zelenka couldn’t see him, it hardly mattered. Green turned the camera back toward him, and he shrugged one shoulder in a question.

She spread her hands as if there were something she wanted to say but couldn’t, and pointed below them. He looked down. He didn’t see anything but the jumper, and if he put his back to the jumper, there was only dark ocean beyond the reach of the jumper’s lights.

She shook her head and signaled ‘okay.’ Lorne hesitated. They could always scratch the mission, but he hated to have it all to do over again.

“Lieutenant Miller says he is reading nothing on sensors but some life form readings, barely large enough for him to detect,” Zelenka said. “We have not had much chance to catalogue the ocean life on this world, though, so if you see anything that looks dangerous, it may be wise to return to the jumper.”

Thanks for the advice, Lorne wanted to say. He nodded and tugged doggedly at the sensor array. It finally came free, and he managed to keep hold of it, waiting for Campbell to stow it on the back of his suit before he started edging the new one into place.

“It should click into place,” Radek said. “We think.”

He wasn’t sure it clicked, but it did at least fit, which was the first big step.

“I’m going to initialize the sensor array,” Radek said. “It should first clear the water from around the crystals.” Lorne nodded. He could see bubbles in the water around the edges of the sensor array, which soon stopped. “Now we are turning the power on.”

All along the sensor vane, small lights began to twinkle red. Lorne signed an enthusiastic thumbs-up for the camera.

“Perfect,” Zelenka said. “Two more to go.”

On the way from the second to the third, a flicker of colored light caught Lorne’s eye. He thought for a moment he’d gotten disoriented, somehow turned a circle in the water. The cold was starting to make his head ache, and his hands were nearly numb to the wrist. He looked up, reassuring himself that he was following the line of the pier, directly below it.

He clapped Green on the shoulder and gave her a questioning look when she turned. She nodded and pointed down, flicking the camera’s light on and off pointedly. They were almost at the last sensor array; Lorne glided up to it and caught at the bent vane to stop his movement in the water, looking down.

He couldn’t see anything past the jumper’s lights. When Green turned the camera on Lorne again, he pointed down toward the jumper and turned his own flashlight on, then pointedly off.

“Lieutenant Miller says he is getting some indication that there may be a fairly large life sign approaching,” Zelenka said. “He is maybe a little concerned.”

Wonderful. Lorne tugged experimentally at the damaged sensor array. It showed no signs of coming free easily. He was sure he saw another flicker of light somewhere in the murky darkness. He pantomimed turning off the jumper’s lights again.

“You would like the jumper’s lights off?” Zelenka asked skeptically.

Lorne nodded firmly. After a moment the jumper’s lights switched off. He turned off his own flashlight, and after a long moment’s hesitation, Green switched off the camera light.

It took a while for his eyes to adjust. He could see the dim light filtering down from the cloudy sky outside the shadow of the city. Beneath him, there were definite flickers of colored light moving in the darkness, and then brightening lights, like something rising toward him.

“Miller feels that you should perhaps return to the jumper,” Zelenka said, and then exclaimed, startled into his native Czech, “Co to, do pekla, je? Gigantická chobotnice?”

Lorne backpedeled instinctively as something rose in front of him, traced with patterns of light that shifted and merged. It looked like a gigantic squid, he realized after a moment, its upper body spread out like a hood in front of him, nearly twice his height. Its tentacles trailed far below it, a few tipped with light.

It was glowing, soft white light chased with patterns of red, whole patches blinking out into darkness and then relighting themselves again. He couldn’t help a sense of fascination, even as he wondered what it ate and if he might look like food to it.

“Okay, it is some sort of cephalopod,” Zelenka said. “The biologists will love this. You should probably not make any sudden moves.”

Lorne wasn’t planning to. He turned the flashlight on experimentally, on the theory that might discourage the creature from sticking around, although he couldn’t help watching it in fascination.

The tip of a tentacle rose toward him. He kicked backwards, wondering if he could actually get out of reach. Then it lit, the light playing over him like its own flashlight beam.

To his left, Lorne could see Campbell prying the damaged sensor array loose. Lorne made a mental note to thank him for that. He motioned for Green to help him, and she unfastened the last replacement array from Campbell’s back with one hand, still filming with the other. Green let go of the damaged array and let it sink beneath them, which Lorne thought was forgivable under the circumstances.

He thought he could see the thing’s eyes, or what passed for its eyes, dark patches that turned to follow his movements. He turned the flashlight experimentally off and then back on. The tentacle went dark, and then lit again.

More tentacles rose toward him, one reaching out toward the flashlight. Lorne considered his options, and let go of the flashlight. The creature curled its tentacle around it, tilting the flashlight back and forth in the water.

“The last array is in place,” Zelenka said. “I am turning it on.” There was another rush of bubbles, and then the sensor vane lit with twinkling red light.

The glow of the creature’s body shifted, dimmer red lights spreading against skin that had gone suddenly dark. It looked a lot like the sensor vane.

One for the biologists, Lorne told himself, and pushed off from the hull, trying to kick toward the jumper without making sudden movements. Green and Campbell followed. Green started to switch on the light on her camera, but Lorne motioned for her to leave it. They didn’t want to draw the creature’s attention as they tried to make their retreat.

It stayed where it was, and Lorne thought he could see the glow of the flashlight’s beam moving erratically through the water along with the light shed by the creature itself. Then it moved, faster than he would have thought possible, rushing past them into the darkness, the flashlight tumbling abandoned through the water behind it.

Lorne heard the noise a moment later, a grinding that he hoped wasn’t an iceberg about to send giant chunks of ice tumbling toward his team. Green caught his arm and pointed toward the edge of the city, and he looked up toward where the water was lit by the gray sunlight.

A ring of spikes were sliding down through the water, meters long and angled out to deflect any impact. Between them, cables stretched to make an underwater fence that would catch anything small enough to slip between the spikes. Here and there Lorne thought he saw gaps, but they could take a look later, and mend anything that looked the worse for wear.

“That is perfectly lovely,” Zelenka said. “Now come inside and get warm.”

Lorne wasn’t about to argue with that.

… and returned the ship to the Genii, thereby ensuring the continuation of smooth diplomatic relations, Dick typed. He hesitated, and then deleted the last part of the sentence. Not strong enough, and anyway he felt that describing their relations with the Genii in the past as smooth was probably more of a creative interpretation of the truth than the IOA was likely to swallow. Thereby avoiding a diplomatic incident that might well have…

The trick was making the consequences sound significant enough to justify handing over an Ancient battle cruiser, but not so dire as to make the IOA question the wisdom of trying to make a deal with the Genii in the first place. He very much suspected that couldn’t be done. He wasn’t looking forward to the IOA reading this report. A diplomatic incident that…

…that would have been very embarrassing, Dick typed, and then deleted the words with a sigh.

He looked up at a diffident knock on the doorframe, feeling grateful for the distraction. “Dr. Zelenka, please come in. What can I do for you?”

“Well, I have good news and bad news,” Zelenka said.

“At least there is some good news,” Dick said.

“A bit, yes,” Zelenka said. “We have managed to reactivate the Ancient systems intended to protect the city from damage by floating ice. We may still have problems if we encounter extremely large icebergs, but Major Lorne says there is no problem with towing those out of the way, or even just blowing them up.”

“Is blowing up icebergs entirely safe?”

Zelenka shrugged. “I think not particularly, but he says that the demolitions experts could use the practice, and I suppose it is not more dangerous than blowing up anything else.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Dick said. He had been dealing with the military for decades, now, and he still sometimes found their perspective a little hard to grasp. “Any more good news?”

“Not really,” Zelenka said. “The biologists are concerned about the pigeon issue.”

“I’m sorry?”

“They sent you memos? We have pigeons?”

“Of course,” Dick said. “The pigeons.” He’d seen an email about pigeons, he was fairly sure, but it hadn’t seemed to be a priority compared to the offworld teams that still hadn’t reported back at the time. “And they’re concerned because…”

“It could be damaging to this planet’s ecosystem,” Zelenka said. “Pigeons can be an invasive species. However, as far as we can tell there are no native birds, and I am skeptical that the pigeons can survive outside the city in this weather. Here they have warmth, and they seem to be finding sources of food.”

Dick frowned. “Would that be our supplies?”

“We have taken measures to make our storerooms pigeon-proof, so we will see how that goes. They are resourceful birds.”

“Is there something else we should be doing?”

Zelenka shrugged again. “I think poison would be more likely to harm the ecosystem than the pigeons, especially if the pigeons were eaten by any of the native sea life. We have a sort of giant squid, apparently. There are various strategies for driving pigeons away, but as there is essentially nowhere for them to go, that is unlikely to be effective.”

“Back up a moment,” Dick said. “Giant squid?”

“They seem to be doing no harm, although they were alarming for our divers to encounter unexpectedly. They are probably interesting to the marine biologists, but in terms of their effect on city systems. Zelenka made a dismissive gesture, possibly indicating that as long as they didn't pose a technical problem, he didn't consider them a priority.

And essentially you are recommending that we do nothing about the pigeons.

Yes. I think the pigeon situation is not really a crisis.

Let's do that, then, Dick said. He was very much in the mood for problems that could be solved by doing nothing. Was that the bad news?

What would be nice, Zelenka said. So, the bad news is much worse. I have been working on trying to ensure that the Wraith cannot access Atlantis' computer systems using information they have gained from Rodney. Dick nodded. It is a bigger problem than I thought. I am finding multiple back doors into the system, and this is suggesting that there are many I am not finding. Right now in my opinion the computer system is not secure.

Dick let out a breath. All right. What do we do?

I will need help on this one, Zelenka said.

Dick had a sinking feeling about where this one seemed to be going. I suppose we could ask Colonel Carter if she could spare any time to our computer security, he said. Asking the person who had his job before him for help wasn't exactly a position he wanted to be in, but neither was having the Wraith with free access to Atlantis' computers. I know she plans to keep the Hammond on station here for at least a few more days in case we do hear from Todd.

What would be helpful. I am just thinking that if we do not, we will need help for more than a few days. The Daedalus should be leaving Earth shortly on its way here.

Yes, Dick acknowledged. Unfortunately, I think we're in no position to request additional staff. The IOA has made it very clear that they will not authorize any further expenses this fiscal year, and that was before they read the report I'm about to send them.

Zelenka's eyebrows raised. Is it that bad?

Dick spread his hands. I have to tell them that we let Todd escape, that Dr. McKay is in the hands of the Wraith and may be handing over the access codes to our computer system as we speak, and that we just gave a functional Ancient battle cruiser to the Genii. Let's just say they won't be happy.It was worse the first year, Zelenka said, with the ghost of a smile.

Most of the first year, Dr. Weir was entirely out of contact with Earth, Dick said. I'm beginning to envy her.

I am not suggesting we hire someone new, Zelenka said. Frankly what I need as much as someone with Rodney's computer skills is someone who understands how Rodney thinks. Myself, I try not to think like Rodney most of the time. It is better for my peace of mind.

What are you suggesting? Dick asked as patiently as possible.

Jeannie Miller, Zelenka said.

Mr. McKay's sister?

She has worked with him in the past, and she understands him as much I suspect as anyone does. If anyone can figure out what back doors Rodney has left for himself and how to close them, I suspect it is her.

I should really write to her in any event, to inform her. I was planning to wait a little longer, but I'll go ahead and ask if she willing to come out and give us some assistance.

What would be very helpful, Zelenka said. It will be at least couple of weeks before the Daedalus can get here, but if we wait and it leaves without her, it will be a month or more.

I'll see what I can do. And then figure out how to explain it to the IOA in a way that doesn't overly emphasize Dr. McKay's unauthorized modifications to the computer system.

I will leave you that in your hands, Zelenka said quickly, and left.

I sure you will, Dick said to no one in particular, and began typing again.