"Move it, chubby!" Rodney heard Ronon's angry voice from behind, and answered irritated.
"I am going as fast as I can, and for your information, I am not chubby, I'm big boned and I need…"
Ronon cut him off. "Save it for when they catch us"
"Oh, right, ok" Rodney started dialing Atlantis, the blasts zooming too close to his ear for comfort, telling him their pursuers were near.
Elizabeth was finishing on some work while waiting for colonel Sheppard's team to return from a recognizance mission. According to their intel, the people of the planet had never been called due to some shield set up by the ancients thousand of years ago. They also had some sort of ancient artifact the visitors from every corner of the galaxy come to see and pay generous contributions to. Fortunately, the large number of people coming and going made it impossible for John and his team to be noticed, so it looked like, just this once, the weren't going to get into any trouble at all. Chuck's voice distracted her from her thoughts.
"Unscheduled gate activation"
"I'll be right there", she spoke in her earpiece and headed for the control room.
She got there just in time to see Rodney fly in through the gate, and land on his stomach, then Ronon running, accompanied by a series of blasts.
"Activate the shield" McKay yelled, his voice slightly muffled by the fall.
He got up,
"Did you have to do that?" Rodney was glaring up at Ronon, with a look in his eyes that could have pulverized concrete.
The Satedian shrugged his shoulders casually. "I thought you'd be faster if I helped"
"WELL NEWS FLASH, CHEWIE, throwing someone through the gate like a bowling boll is not considered help as far as most people are concerned."
"Rodney" Elizabeth snapped. "Ronon, what's going on?
"We ran into a some trouble."
"I can see that", she said, resisting the urge to run back to her office and enthusiastically hit her head against the desk for eves being as naïve as to think they wouldn't.
"Where are colonel Sheppard and Teyla.?"
"Oh, they had to stay behind," Rodney answered, waving his hand. "Listen, if we're done here, I'd like to…"
"Why did they have to stay behind?" Elizabeth cut him off, shocked to see him so calm, when two of his friends and team mates were stranded on an apparently less than friendly planet.
"It seems that the ancient artifact of great power that they were worshipping wasn't some sort of pastel colored rock, like I originally thought" She mentally rolled her eyes at the memory of Rodney complaining on and on about having to leave his lab only to pay his respects to an alien boulder. She hadn't noticed before, but he was holding something wrapped up in his jacket.
"A ZPM?" She gasped and he removed the jacket to reveal it.
"A fully functional ZPM," the scientist added smugly. "This one has never even been used"
"Where did you get it?" she asked.
"From the planet."Ronon answered.
"The ancients entrusted it to them, along with the shield meant to protect it. They thought it held great magic power, and started worshipping it."
"Wait, you're telling me you stole this?" Elizabeth asked in disbelief.
"Stole is a little too much, don't you think? I mean, they weren't even using it, they probably have another one powering up the shield, and they don't even know it"
"McKay and I got it while Sheppard and Teyla distracted the crowd" Ronon cut in.
"You still haven't answered my question. Where are John and Teyla?"
"They couldn't come with us, they were surrounded and they would have drawn suspicion if they just took off. They wouldn't have made it as far as the gate." he stopped seeing Elizabeth's concern.
"Oh, don't worry, no body knows they were there with us, so they should be back in a few hours."
"Alright," she sighed, "I want you to report to the infirmary. No buts." She demanded, seeing Rodney about to protest. "Carson will meet you there." I have a bad feeling about this, she thought to herself, as she watched Rodney and Ronon depart.