His Conundrum

Some Things are Better Left Alone

Dusting off the walls of the catacombs, Kait brushed some of the dirt from her face and let out grunt as she hoisted herself higher, her knees covered in the sludge of the dirty water in the area.

"They could have warned us that the entrance was in a damn sewer..." Rodney grunted, as Daniel, who normally was more laid back, emphatically agreed.

"If one more creature gets in my shoe..." Kait growled, pushing her hair out of her face and reading the Ancient text on the walls.

Over the radio, Zelenka popped in. "Rodney, we think that we've just about got the power running up here, are you all ready down there?"

"Well we'd like to not be ankles deep in sludge, Radek, so you tell me." Rodney said with a roll of his eyes, as Zelenka began swearing in Czech and got off the radio. "Swear to god, sometimes he's thicker than a stack of bricks."

Looking up, Kait reached up and grabbed the top of the ridge, and pulled herself up slowly... and reached forward, as she felt the door override. "Radek..." she panted, holding herself up. "I found the override, but I need power... I'm not going to be able to hold myself up here forever."

"Hold yourself up where?"

"The override is on a ledge." She said, propping herself on her elbows for a moment. After a moment, the lights in the catacombs flickered, then held steady.

"Go on and try it now."

She reached forward and hit the button, as a loud groan of the machinery started up. She slipped, and fell on her backside into the water, gasping as the cold water hit her chest and up her arms, and soaked her pants. She started swearing colorfully, as the water finally drained and the door opened, flowing down the hall and down into a drain. Daniel and Rodney helped her up, as she shook some of the filthy water from her hands and hair.

"You alright?" Daniel asked her, as she nodded.

"Oh I'm f&$%#%g peachy." she said, as she got a look down the hall. The floor was wet, but it was opened up, and in front of them, down the long hall, was a room. Rodney turned to Daniel. "Go up with Radek, make sure he's good, then get down here and join us. Grab Nichols something dry from ... er... that girl with the red hair while you're up there." He said, as Daniel nodded and ran up and out of the catacombs.

Rodney and Kait looked down the hall. "Shall we?" she asked, biting back the lump in her throat that came from worry.

They headed down the long hall, as lights began to all fully activate, reacting to Kait's natural and Rodney's gene-therapy ATA genes. They stepped into the labs and the panels began to activate, turning on while displays powered up and began to show notes and text. They both began reading the control panels, studying the information that was coming on the screens.

"Rodney, are you reading what I'm reading?"

"Yeah... this was a bio-weapons lab." He said, his eyebrows together in concentration. "They were in the middle of a project when the Ancients left."

Kait nodded, her eyes darting across the information on the displays. She blinked after a moment, then re-read the information... and called Rodney over.

"Rodney... look at this."

Rodney walked forward, and read her screen. "That can't be right. It's saying the last known entry in here was... a few years ago." He got quiet. "We were lied to."

She nodded. "So it seems."

As she went to check another display, she sucked in breath and backed up.

"Rodney!"

At the panic in her voice, he rushed around the corner, and came face to face with the same body that Kait had just seen. "Holy crap!" he backed up, as she began to look at the body.