The best of all possible worlds
Summary: You know the drill by now: ancient tech goes wrong, but it goes more wrong for Sheppard than for everyone else.
Author note: set early in series 4 so potential spoilers up to then, but particularly 'McKay and Mrs Miller' (series 3). There's no Lt Ford, but we do have Ronon; there's no Carson Beckett (sorry!) so the CMO is Jennifer Keller, and the Expedition leader is Lt Col Samantha Carter.
Warning: it's another present tense story – for some reason I seem to find them easier to write. If you don't like present tense, you probably won't like this. Chapters are also likely to be on the short side. I'm not so good at long stuff.
Not sure where this bizarre idea came from, but it wouldn't leave me alone til I wrote it down. What I'd really love is for one of my favourite fanfic writers to take the basic idea (which I find intriguing) and write a better story around it!
CHAPTER 1
"Well, at least this time we don't have to trek through miles of identical countryside to play 'hunt the Ancient tech'," comments Dr Rodney McKay, as the stargate shuts down behind him.
The MALP had shown them that the stargate on MX956K was – unusually in the Pegasus Galaxy - within a building of some sort. The Ancient database had it listed as a research outpost, but with no detail "as usual" McKay had complained. This alone made it worth checking out, albeit with a hefty dose of caution.
Sheppard and Teyla's P90s are able to provide some illumination once the light from the event horizon has disappeared, while Rodney focuses on the LSD. Only their four life signs show up; it seems the research station is as deserted as the MALP had promised.
"Alright people," drawls Sheppard, once he's glanced at the LSD, "this place looks structurally sound, and we seem to be the only ones here, but you know the drill: don't touch anything if you don't know what it is, and keep your eyes peeled."
While Sheppard, Teyla and Ronon continue to sweep their meagre lights over the walls, Rodney slips the LSD into a pocket of his tac vest, and swings his backpack round to reach in and retrieve his trusty tablet and a mess of cabling.
"I'm not reading much in the way of power, here, Colonel," he begins, feeling underneath the nearest panel for an access point, "But let's see if we can get the lights on and find out what exactly the Ancients were doing here."
"Okay, but be careful," comes the reply. "Do you need me to initialise anything yet?" the Colonel offers, coming to stand alongside McKay as he connects up his own equipment to the Ancient consoles and starts taking readings.
"Try that one," waves the scientist, without looking up, and Sheppard's gut does its usual twist as he reaches out his hand. He's been on the receiving end of a few too many 'interesting' effects of long-dormant ancient experiments, but as the strongest ATA-gene carrier in the Atlantis expedition, it is something of an occupational hazard.
"You sure?" he queries, careful not to let his trepidation show.
"Yes, yes," mutters McKay impatiently. "There's not enough power running through it to do you any harm."
Sheppard raises his eyebrows, but says nothing, instead checking that his P90 is set to 'safety' and then lowering it to place the palm of his left hand on the panel that McKay had indicated.
A few lights half-heartedly flicker, and then glow steadily, and McKay makes a non-committal noise, stabbing at his tablet with a frown.
"So?" prompts Sheppard after a few moments. "You got any idea yet about what this place is?"
"Give me a minute…"
Sheppard lifts his hand slightly from the panel, and when the lights stay on, he rests his clasped hands on the top of his P90 where it hangs from his vest, and bends to examine the rest of the console. Layers of dust cover the panels, but something McKay is doing is having an effect, because a bank of screens suddenly flickers to life, and a low frequency humming filters through the stale air.
"Ha!" exclaims the scientist, standing straight.
"Is that a good 'ha!' or a bad 'ha', McKay?" questions Sheppard, just a hint of edge to his voice.
"It's an 'I think I know what they were researching here' kind of 'ha!'" snaps Rodney, "but I need more time to download all the information here, and some of it's pretty badly corrupted. Actually Colonel, could you put your hand back on there for a minute, it was better when you were there."
Sheppard shrugs, and palms the panel again.
"Hey, Ronon, this might take a while. Do you and Teyla want to scout out the rest of the complex, see if there's anything to see?" Sheppard tosses Ronan his flashlight – neither he nor Teyla would be able to make the Ancient lighting work. Ronon catches the flashlight with a grunted acknowledgement.
"We will make radio contact if we find anything, Colonel," Teyla assures him.
"And every 10 minutes even if you don't," reminds Sheppard as they head towards the one open doorway and dark corridor beyond.
Sheppard leans back against the console, trying not so huff at having to stick around with his hand on a clapped out piece of lab equipment instead of where he feels he should be. Not for the first time he reminds himself that he is only here in the Pegasus galaxy because of his ATA gene - without it he'd still be flying choppers in Antarctica.
An hour later, Ronan and Teyla have returned empty handed – the remainder of the research station contains nothing of interest, as far as they can tell – and Sheppard's arm is aching from standing in the same position. He is also bored. Rodney has spent the time muttering to himself, and when the Colonel had tried asking him for an update, the scientist had been characteristically dismissive.
Sheppard shifts position again, and whiles away a minute trying to unwrap a power bar one-handed, and then another minute trying to brush the crumbs off the console without Rodney noticing.
"Dr McKay," Teyla begins, "Have you been able to determine what this facility was used for?" It is her best diplomatic voice, but she is clearly bored as well. Ronon is equally so, but is making no attempt to hide it. He is squatting on the floor in one corner, using one of his knives to shave away part of the handle of another – presumably to balance it better for throwing.
"Actually, I think I have," Rodney answers, looking pleased with himself. "I've just finished downloading all the data, so I can look at it again back in my own lab, but I think that they were doing here something like we tried back in Atlantis with the – er – unfortunate side effects – anyway, it looks like they were working on ways of generating power using a bridge between alternate realities to filter off exotic particles."
"It didn't go so well when we tried that, McKay," Sheppard reminds him.
"Wasn't that when you almost destroyed a parallel universe?" Teyla offers, helpfully.
"Yeah," says Ronon. "And your double turned up and annoyed the hell out of us."
"And we depleted a whole ZPM," adds Sheppard.
"Yes, well," Rodney snaps, "this is the ancients we're talking about. There's nothing about an attempt to generate power this way in the Ancient database that we can access back on Atlantis, but if they got it working here? Maybe it was just too late for them to be able to use the extra power in the fight against the Wraith?"
"Or maybe," warns Sheppard, "they realised it was a really bad idea and shut it the hell down before it destroyed a whole universe?"
"I need to go back to my own lab and analyse the data," says Rodney. "If their research shows they managed it better than we did, which I doubt, then we can come back here and try to resurrect some of this equipment."
"That mean we can go home?" asks Ronon bluntly, springing to his feet with surprising grace for a man of his size.
At Rodney's nod, Sheppard scrunches the wrapper of his powerbar into a ball and stuffs it back into his tac vest, then reaches over to punch the Atlantis address into the DHD, and transmits his IDC, his other hand still on the console.
Ronon and Teyla area already standing before the gate, and Rodney is most of the way through disconnecting his tablet when he pulls one of the connectors a little too suddenly, and his elbow smacks hard into Sheppard's wrist so that the Colonel not only loses contact with panel he'd been touching for the last hour, but brushes another two.
There's s shower of sparks, and all of a sudden the low-level hum becomes a steadily rising whine, and the whole complex begins to shudder beneath their feet.
"Crap!" mutters Sheppard. With a glance down at the GDO to check the shield status, Sheppard waves everyone through. "We're clear," he shouts over the din. "Get through the gate, and have them raise the shield once I'm through!"
Teyla and Ronon don't need telling twice. Sheppard grabs McKay by the upper arm, and shoves him through the gate, then bends to swipe their two packs and risk one last glance round.
He shouldn't have taken that last second.
The blast knocks the air from his lungs, and tosses him through the gate along with the disintegrated remains of half the lab.