Trust Once Broken | SGA John Sheppard

0.117.0

John trusted Kai's reaction more than his own hearing. He raised his hand to his comm. "McKay?" he called and when there was no answer he turned to the group. "Ronon, Teyla, head back to the jumper," John ordered then he activated his radio once more. "Come in McKay!"

"Fall back to the jumper!" McKay's voice suddenly shouted through the comms, high with stress. "We're going to need a new plan."

John was the first through the door, although Kai was right beside him, her ARG raised and ready. There had been another voice in the background of McKay's radio, but she couldn't be sure it had been Niam. She had never met him when he was awake. When they cleared the bay and worked their way to the jumper they found McKay sitting on the bench, holding his head in his hands. John frowned and then crouched, scooping up a pile of small metal shards.

"It wasn't my fault!" McKay insisted. "His power levels were no where near high enough for him to activate, let alone stand and talk. One minute he was a Popsicle and the next he came to life!" McKay spoke almost too fast to track.

Kai wasn't sure what a popsicle was but she got the gist of what had happened. She wished she had been part of some of the replicator research projects so she could have been more helpful. At this point she could offer little more than her ability to fight, but even that wasn't very helpful against this enemy.

"He just came to life?" Elizabeth clarified with a confused frown.

"They must have gotten to O'Neill and Woolsey," Ronon's voice rumbled from behind them.

Sheppard stood, dusting the shards off his hands. "O'Neill never would have given us away."

"Obviously their minds were probed," Teyla supplied helpfully.

Sheppard nodded, pinching the bridge of his nose. They just could not catch a break on this one. "Well, they know we're here and how we got in."

"Which is how they were able to reactivate Niam which pretty much screws plan A," McKay snapped shoving himself to his feet with an angry sigh.

Kai frowned down at the pile metal as she considered what they could do next. She wasn't as familiar with the replicators as the others since she hadn't ever encountered them personally. They weren't something they could fight, not in the traditional way. They needed to think their way through this one.

"Could you activate the freezing program another way?" Carson asked.

"No, I need to load the program directly into a replicator and spread it that way," McKay said cupping his forehead as though he had a headache.

"All right, so that plans out the window...we need another one..." Weir dragged off.

Ronon grunted. "Well these weapons blow them apart, right? I say we just start killing them."

McKay shot Ronon a withering look. "While normally I would share your run-and-gun enthusiasm, but these weapons are only going to work for so long before they manage to identify the frequency they use to disrupt the bonds that hold the replicators together."

Ronon turned to Sheppard. "What did he say?"

"They build up an immunity," John translated.

"Exactly," McKay snapped brittly "Look the freezing program would have worked because they would be unable to communicate with one another-"

Kai stepped up the ramp and took McKay's tablet from his hand while he explained to the others about the plan. She already understood the finer points, and didn't need to listen. They needed something else.

"-while we were blasting them. But the more we shoot, the greater the likelihood these weapons are going to become ineffective."

Kai scanned through the data. The bonds that held the replicators together didn't look that much different from the structure of the shield and cloak programs. Which made sense as they all originated from the same technology of the Ancients.