save atlantis (saveatlantis) wrote in saveatlantisic, @ 2019-02-14 10:42:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log, *el, *laura, *lena, *mary, *tara, abby griffin, antoine triplett, antonie triplett, armel chevalier, clark kent, sara lance |
JANUARY MISSION: TEAM 5
Though a part of her worried each and every time that teams were sent out on missions -- especially when Clarke’s team was called -- Abby remained content to stay in Atlantis. Yes, even with the daily chaos that the city threw at them. Atlantis had become home and Medical, well, her workplace was perhaps the one place in the whole damn city that she felt the safest. Runner up was definitely Doctor Callahan’s office. Not once since she arrived - not even when she was technically on suspension - had she considered requesting to be assigned to a mission when needed. Most teams had a fully qualified medic and her skills would be put to better use in the city. Not to mention that staying also meant that she could continue to focus on healing. High stress situations had the potential for her to relapse into bad habits.
So, when Abby had first seen the alert about the mission debriefing she assumed that all she would be required to do was to provide information. Information that would assist the teams in safely and successfully completing their objectives. It wasn’t until halfway through the debriefing that the reality of the situation finally settled in. She wasn’t just here to provide information. Oh no. Abby was also here because she was being assigned to this mission. Along with everyone else from her world. And with that her anxiety level rose. She really, really should have read the alert in its entirety.
A trip back home was the absolute worst way to begin the year. Nothing could convince her otherwise. Going home was a return to everything that she was desperately attempting to put behind her. So, in an effort to avoid an anxiety attack over what potentially awaited them she focused on checking and re-checking the mission inventory. And then once she had finished a re-check she checked everything again. And again. Until finally she was convinced to catch a few hours of sleep.
We do what we must.
Abby - like everyone else - dreaded having to step back inside Mount Weather. There weren’t any happy memories of the place or even the people inside. Being back meant there would be pain. Whether it was for their own actions when last they were here or things that had been done to them. No matter what the reason there would be pain. But her daughters words from the day before continued to play on repeat in her mind as they set out on this mission.
We do what we must.
Clarke’s words continued to repeat as they briefly investigated the abandoned mountain. And they even continued while she assisted the others with unpacking supplies and setting up the command post.
We do what we must.
Even now - as Abby stood outside, with the wind rustling through her hair - they still played on repeat. And honestly they’d probably continue to play on repeat until their mission was done.
We do what we must.
The portal that opened up deposited them closer to the island than Trip had expected, but he allowed relief to flood over him as he stepped through into the forest on the other side. What he’d heard of the deadzone in between was not something he wanted to see for himself -- miles upon miles of desolate sand where cities used to stand. It would have extended their excursion longer than they could have afford.
As it was, however, they still needed to actually get to the island. The forest opened up to a rocky shore and a lake in front of them, the view only interrupted by what he presumed was the island in the middle. “Right. Any big ideas?”
Abby wasn’t exactly thrilled to be returning to Becca’s Island but anything was better than staying inside a deserted Mount Weather. And at least they didn’t have to journey across the deadzone. Despite her apprehensions about what awaited them, Abby, lingered behind until everyone had proceeded into the clearing.
“We took a boat across the last time,” Abby said in response as she walked up behind everyone.
And that, Trip thought, was why they needed an expert. “Perfect. Now we just… gotta find a boat.” Trip scanned the beach again, looking for anything that might be up on the shore. “Or make one?”
“It might be a good idea to form two teams,” she said also scanning the beach. “One team goes looking for materials to build something capable of carrying us all. And while they are doing that, team two can search for an abandoned boat.”
“Works for me.” Trip inclined his head towards Abby. “You wanna look for a boat? I can take someone, go look for supplies to build a raft.”
“I have no objections to searching for the boat,” Abby replied and then pointed to the east of them. “I’ll head in that direction. Anyone that wants to join me is welcome to.”
As she and Antoine - no, Trip, as she had learned he liked to be called - headed towards A.L.I.E.’s mansion, Abby realized that this would be her first time inside. Last time she had been preoccupied with finding a way to manufacture nightblood, as well as, looking after Raven, that she hadn’t once left the lab. Their very survival was more important than exploring a house that would soon be destroyed.
When the mansion came into sight, Abby placed her hand on Trip’s arm, stopping him from going any further. Up until now there weren’t any signs of life anywhere but technically, A.L.I.E. wasn’t a living thing. She was an AI. And if she was in-fact inside the mansion, Abby, wanted to make sure that her teammate was well prepared for what could happen.
“Before we go inside, I should warn you that I was one of many who once fell under A.L.I.E.’s control. And if she is still trapped inside there’s a small possibility that she might be able to control me once more,” Abby said. “If that happens, I want you to go find the others, leave the island and then radio Mount Weather asking to speak with Raven. She’ll know what to do once you explain the situation.”
When Abby reached out, Trip stopped and inclined his head towards her. He kept his gaze on the lawn and the house in front of them as he listened, not wanting to let down his guard too much. People being controlled by artificial intelligence wasn’t something he was looking forward to running into, however, so he turned slightly to face her, a frown knit across his brow.
“I --” She was right, of course. That was the best course of action, even if he didn’t like it. They’d need back-up, they’d need answers. They’d need to get somewhere safe before they could come back. “I can do that,” he promised.
From the little interaction they’d had and what she’d glanced at on the network, Abby, knew that it wasn’t a choice he’d particularly like. Hell, it wasn’t a choice that she’d like either. But sometimes you had to make the hard choices. Choices that would guarantee the survival of many. And this was just one of those choices.
“Thank you, Trip” Abby said and then removed her hand from his arm. “I suppose we should keep moving.”
Trip took pride in himself for being honorable, loyal, trustworthy. He’d been asked to do difficult things in the past and hadn’t actually needed to -- but now, staring down the possibility of having to do what Abby asked, it sent a chill down his spine. He had no doubt he could do it, at the end of the day, but he hoped they could find another answer.
At the door, he stopped. “I’ll go first. Watch my back.” So far, they’d seen and heard nothing unusual. It was eerily quiet, so much so that it unnerved him. With his gun raised, he used his other hand to slowly turn the doorknob and step through, keeping his back to a wall at all times.
This mission was about as opposite to a trip into Ponyland as you could get and Sara had heard enough of the details of what they might face here to be pretty damn wary. When she’d woken with a headache that morning, she chalked it up to the stress of the mission and the ever present worry that any one of them might be taken over by A.L.I.E. Not hearing any voices in her head or feeling like anything else was off made it easy to shrug it off.
She’d spent most of the other day searching the lighthouse with Armel and most of yesterday searching the mansion as a group, but today she’d paired up with Trip to go through another part of the mansion again. It was pretty boring work and she was itching for a fight, but Sara knew it was important. They were on the second level near the stairs, still coming up empty. Sara did her best to ignore the pain in his skull as they searched. “Kind of creepy, isn’t it?” she asked, just for something to break the eerie silence of this place.
“No kidding,” Trip agreed. There was something deeply wrong about this place, beyond the obvious emptiness of the hallways and rooms. Just being under the mansion’s roof made Trip’s skin crawl, and he couldn’t figure out if it was because it was abandoned and yet still pristine, or if there was something more to it.
And, if there was, what it was. The creepy feeling followed him everywhere.
“I keep feelin’ like this is a trap, or,” Trip stopped next to the top of the staircase, “or like this is a distraction and we’re missing what we really need to be looking at.”
Sara nodded. She’d had the same kind of feelings since stepping inside the place and on top of that, she had one hell of a headache. That should have made her grateful for the silence and maybe she would have been if it didn’t feel so damn creepy in the mansion. It was too quiet. She didn’t trust it at all. This kind of quiet usually meant all hell was going to break out eventually.
“That’s-” Sara felt suddenly dizzy, the details of the room blurred and she felt herself start to stumble as her visioned darkened.
“Whoa --”
Trip was a few paces away, but he saw Sara sway out of the corners of his eyes. Instinct took over and he stepped forward, in between Sara and the stairs, reaching out to stop her just before she tumbled. “Sara?” She was limp in his arms, however, and she didn’t answer. Carefully, he maneuvered them so she was laying on the landing, and he bent over her to check her pulse and her breathing. “Sara,” he patted her cheek softly. “Hey, come on. This ain’t funny.”
But she wasn’t waking.
Over the comms, he reached out to the rest of the team, “Trip here, we’ve got a problem. Lance is out cold.” Maybe Abby would have a better idea of what was going on. Or so he hoped.
Abby - after minutes of debating the pro’s and con’s - was moments away from cautiously opening a drawer when Trip’s voice came over the radio. But unlike her debate over the drawer it had only taken her a second to abandon her search and respond.
“Trip, it’s Abby. I’m on my way. How’s her breathing?”
“Steady,” came the answer quickly. His fingers were pressed against her pulse point as he kept track of the pace. “Pulse seems to be fine. Strong.” That did nothing to reassure him, however, since he still had no idea what had caused it. All he could do was monitor her vitals and keep an eye on her until Abby arrived, but despite how patient he could be sometimes, he felt his own heartrate pick up a notch out of concern.
“We’re at the top of the stairs, second floor. Hard to miss,” he added after another moment. And then he directed his thoughts to the rest of the team, “if anyone starts to feel off, dizzy or light-headed or anything outside of normal at all, let me or Magnus know. This could be something that’ll affect all of us, for all we know.”
As badly as he’d wanted to chase after the COS agents, that idea had vanished - literally - before their eyes. There was something just as pressing, however: the revelation that something was hidden. If COS was behind it, it couldn’t be a good thing, so whatever it is, it needed to be found before they could go. It could be the thing they were looking for all along. That sent a shiver down Trip’s spine. They were running out of time.
There were a lot of hiding places in the labs. Cabinets, shelves, six different levels -- it could take a long time to search through all of it if they weren’t efficient. If they split up, each of them tackled a different level -- would that be enough?
Even abandoned, the labs were magnificent. Fitz and Simmons would’ve had a field day with them, Trip thought. Not for the first time, he wished Jemma was on his team so she could see it.
Once he finished with one area, he moved to the next and scanned the space for any air drafts, any irregularities in the walls, floors or ceilings. Nothing popped up, so he ran his hands over the walls anyway, hoping that he’d feel a change. A tile shifted under his touch, and he heard a click from down the hall. There, a small square had popped up. It would’ve been impossible to see without activating the latch first.
“Hey, guys? I think I found something!”
Sara moved quickly over to where Trip was standing, halting her own search of the room and let out a low, impressed whistle. She was positive that hadn’t been there a minute ago.
Looking inside the opening he’d made, she spotted what they’d been looking for. “Pretty sure that’s the camera,” she commented. She eyed the space surrounding it and made a face. “Surrounded by booby traps, it looks like. We’re gonna have to be careful.” She’d encountered enough traps on Lian Yu to recognize one when she saw it and there were several in the path between them and the camera.
“Right.” They couldn’t have made it easy on them, huh? Trip frowned a little as he looked at the camera, wondering how they’d be able to bypass traps when they didn’t know what was in store for them. “Wish I had some drones right now,” he muttered. “Wonder if scanning it would set anything off?”
“Let’s give it a try,” Sara suggested. It might blow up in their faces - maybe literally - but they weren’t going to get anywhere without taking a risk and this seemed like one worth taking. It was a better plan than just rushing forward without trying to find out what they were walking into.
Trip knelt down and pulled the device from his bag. “Here goes nothing.”
But that was exactly what happened: nothing. Nothing was set off, but not much popped up on his screen, either. It registered a few holes in a wall, a bum step -- but what effects any of those might have? They were still going in mostly blind, although he did get a glimpse of a small field of lasers in front of the camera. There could be poisonous gas for all they knew, or miniscule darts. “I think the camera’s on a weighted trap,” he offered. “Like Indiana Jones.” He eyed Sara. “You’re flexible, right? Maybe you could Ocean’s Twelve laser dance your way through some of it.”
“Like a ninja.” Sara winked at him before studying the view a little more. She couldn’t help wishing Oliver was here with her, but she shrugged it off. They had a good team. She and Ollie weren’t the only ones with the experience. He would have just been a familiar face before walking into a probably death situation. No big deal, right?
Outwardly, Sara was the picture of confidence as she gave Trip a hold my beer kind of look. She was armed with the best tech Atlantis could give them, including a pair of goggles she grabbed from her pack that would help her see the lasers she needed to avoid.
“Here goes nothing,” she murmured under her breath as she moved forward, dancing carefully and gracefully over and under beams that would mean certain death if her movements were off by even a millimeter.
After a few near misses, she reached the camera. “Think I’m gonna need some help to diffuse this one,” she said into her comms. “Anyone an explosives expert?”
“I got your back, girl,” Trip reassured her. He took a deep breath. He could do this. This was what they’d trained for. It wasn’t ideal -- the maze he had to get through was going to be a doozy -- but Trip was confident in his skills and knew he and Sara could get it done.
He exhaled slowly.
“Here goes nothin’.”
“Try not to get blown up,” Sara teased. She couldn’t help tensing a little as she watched her teamwork try to navigate the traps the way she had. He wasn’t quite as graceful as she had been, but he made it to her in one piece and she was going to call that again.
“I’ll give you a 7 for that performance,” she quipped when he’d found his way to her side and the explosive that prevented actual removal of the camera. “You’re sure you can do this, right?” She was a little more serious now. Dying in an explosion wasn’t really on her to do list for the day, but they needed that damn camera.
“Nope,” Trip quipped, but that was part of the reason he did what he did: the constant danger, the adrenaline rush he got from beating the odds, the accomplishment he felt after a successful mission, learning something new, challenging himself. “But I’m sure as hell gonna try.”
Despite his reservations, Trip’s hands were steady. He barely breathed as he worked at the tiny wires. One wrong move and -- boom.
But then the light on the device blinked off, and Trip exhaled. He flashed Sara a bright grin before carefully picking the camera up and tucking it away safely in his bag. “Let’s get out of here before it changes its mind.”