The gate deactivated behind him with a whoosh and a snap. Frigid dry air assaulted his lungs with the first breath he drew in. "What the heck's going on?" Rodney called out, his voice disappearing into the landscape. His eyes took in the scene in front of him, finally registering that he wasn't in the Atlantis gate-room.
All around him were white, snow covered mountains. The gate was on top of a modest hill overlooking a valley in which a thin arc of the sun was just visible over the horizon. The air was impossibly still, his ears ringing in the silence.
"How is this...?" Rodney muttered. He searched the scene in front of him, his mind automatically going to the first priority; to find the DHD. The DHD rested partially covered in snow a few paces in front of the gate. Okay, so at least he wasn't stranded.
Why was he here? The last thing he remembered was dialing Atlantis and stepping through the gate. Thinking back, he remembered seeing the light on the GDO turn green, meaning the answering signal from Atlantis reached his transceiver.
This didn't make any sense at all. There were no energy bursts to the outbound gate that would have caused the gate to switch destinations. This couldn't happen!
He looked around, seeing nothing but snow covered peaks, blanketed in an eerie stillness. Clearly this had happened, and he needed to get out of here.
He stepped off the platform and into the snow, the edge of the snow going over his boots and down his ankles. "Oh fantastic," he said as he trudged through the knee deep snow to the DHD. He brushed the thin layer of snow off the DHD and pressed the symbols for Atlantis, activating the gate.
He watched the wormhole stabilize, then looked to his wrist GDO, waiting for the signal to proceed. He stared at the red indicator, waiting. Something was wrong, normally it wouldn't take this long.
"Atlantis, this is McKay," he said into the radio strapped to his shoulder. He counted to five waiting for a response. "Atlantis, this is McKay." Only silence answered him. "Come on guys, I'm freezing here. I've been accidentally sent to a frozen wasteland." He looked to his GDO, but the light was still red.
The gate shut off. He stared through the ring at the mountain peak on the other side, watching as the line of sunlight rose up the side of it as the sun disappeared. The tips of his ears were starting to hurt because of the cold.
"The alpha-site," he muttered. He closed his eyes, tapping his head with his finger as he tried to remember the address. The symbols came to him with the mnemonic he used to remember gate addresses. He entered the symbols and activated the gate, wasting no time in sprinting through the snow and through the barrier.
He stepped through on the other side, the warm balmy air and the smell of spring trees greeting him in the morning twilight. He would have sighed in relief except for the cold snow wet which was still lodged in his shoe.
Nothing looked like he remembered. There were no tents, no people, no buildings, no anything. There was only a small clearing in around him which was flanked on all sides by the sprawling low trees common to the area. Was this even the right planet? What was going on?
The trees moved, or rather the people hiding behind the trees came out, almost as of they condensed out of the air. There were at least a dozen, men and women pointing what looked like high tech weapons at him.
"Woah woah," Rodney said, putting his hands palms forward at shoulder height. He looked all around at them, trying to figure out who they were. They were dressed in gray colored clothing, probably uniforms. That could imply they were part of some sort of military. But who were they? Maybe the Genii?
A woman approached, slightly shorter than him, with short cut dark hair. She carried a sense of authority in the way she walked, stopping a few paces from Rodney.
"He's human," she called to those around her. "Lower your weapons." All the soldiers around the gate lowered their weapons and stood at attention.
"I'm sorry about that," the woman said. "I suppose you can understand that we need to protect ourselves given the state of things."
"Uh, sure." Rodney said, not having the slightest idea what she was talking about.
"I am commander Elren of the Sorian military. You are?"
"Confused." Rodney said before he could catch up with what he was thinking.
"Your name is 'Confused?'" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No, uh, no. My name is Rodney McKay and... Could you explain what's going on?"
"Normally we would not greet strangers like this, but with the wraith as they're called, becoming a larger threat, we have been forced to take measures to protect ourselves. Although I cannot require it of you, we would appreciate it if you could state the reason for your journey here."
"Actually, I wasn't trying to come here, I was trying to go-somewhere-else." He was met with a blank stare. "The gate must have malfunctioned, this isn't the planet I was trying to get to."
The woman rolled her eyes briefly. "That's typical. There have been a number of gate malfunctions recently. Several worlds we've tried to contact haven't been able to establish a connection. The Linteen would normally have corrected such a problem sooner, but obviously they're preoccupied with other things."
"Right, right, do you mind if I try dialing out?"
"Proceed," the woman said, gesturing to the DHD.
Rodney stepped down the concrete ramp to the DHD. He figured there would be little harm in dialing Atlantis directly. These people probably wouldn't recognize the symbols anyway. He entered the symbols for Atlantis and activated the gate. After entering the code on his GDO, he waited for the signal which still didn't come. The sound of guns loading sounded all around him.
He looked around and saw that all of the soldiers were pointing their weapons at him once more.
"What is the meaning of this?" Elren asked.
"What do you mean? I'm just trying to get home."
"Bind him," she ordered.
"Wait, agh." Rodney was forced face to the ground, practically eating the dirt.
"What's going on? What did I do?" he pleaded.
"What audacity you must have. A Lantean showing their face around here?"
Cords were tied tightly around his wrists and a black cover placed over his head. They manhandled him, forcing him to his feet and leading him in some direction.
"Climb," one of them ordered after walking a short distance.
"Climb where?" Rodney demanded. He was forced forward and stumbled on a set of metal steps which clattered as he moved. Setting one foot in front of the other, he realized that he was climbing a metal grate ramp.
"Sit," the same soldier ordered. He felt the area around him and found a wood bench. As he sat down, the entire ground began to rattle with a nearly deafening noise. It was an engine, like a truck of some kind. The ground lurched underneath him, meaning that he was moving forward.
He was so S-O-L, it was beyond belief. Trapped in prison on an unknown alien world with none of his friends knowing where he was. What was going on with Atlantis anyway? Why wouldn't they answer the radio or his GDO signal? A fear simmered beneath the surface which he was reluctant to consider. What if something happened to Atlantis? What if the wraith found their way there?
Rodney sat down on the cot and lay back on the rough wool covers. At least these people, whoever they were kept their prisons clean. It wasn't as bad as being on a wraith ship, except maybe for being stripped searched and having everything examined. Thinking back, they probably had stripped searched him, the only difference was he was unconscious at the time.
Before he could push those disturbing thoughts aside and get comfortable, several gray uniformed soldiers stomped to the lock and slid open the horizontal steel bars.
"Get up," one ordered, pointing a weapon at him. Rodney stood and shuffled out of the cell.
"Where are we going?"
"Commander Elren has arranged for you to be interrogated."
"Oh," Rodney moaned. They led him through a labyrinth of steel doors and concrete which reminded him of a slightly rusty and dark version of the SGC.
They stopped at one door in particular, which one of the soldiers opened by turning a large wheel-like latch. The door swung open showing a table set up, with a single dim lamp overhead. At one end of the table, commander Elren sat perfectly still and straight with her elbows on the table, looking at him with a deadly gaze.
"Sit," she ordered. Rodney wasn't in the mood to argue, so he sat on the rickety wood chair which creaked as he settled in.
"Who are you?" she demanded.
"Doctor Rodney McKay," he said truthfully.
"Where are you from?"
Rodney didn't answer immediately. The fact that he and his team were from a planet called Earth in another galaxy was considered 'need to know' when they were dealing with alien races. Still, this woman looked like she was not in a mood to be lied to. They weren't wraith after all, so it would probably be okay for him to at least give them a name.
"I'm from a planet called Earth."
"Why were you attempting to contact Atlantis?"
"That's where I live! Look, what's going on here? Why did you guys freak out when I dialed the gate."
"Because there's a war going on."
"Yeah and so what, you're just gonna kidnap me because you feel like it? What did I ever do to you?"
"What do you know about the wraith?"
"A lot of things, what does that have to do with anything?"
"For instance."
"I don't know, pick something! Pick a topic!"
She gestured to a guard who brought a wraith stunner to her. She examined the weapon briefly and then pointed it at him.
"You were carrying this wraith weapon with you. Explain how it works"
"You think I'm involved with the wraith? We've found those things lying around everywhere, just having one doesn't mean I'm associated with the wraith. And to answer your question, that works by creating an ion path through the air for an energy beam consisting of a certain set of low energy particles at just the right interference pattern to interrupt and temporarily damage the nervous system of the victim. None of which probably means anything to you."
Elren leaned forward. "It's a stunner."
"Uh, well yeah."
"Could you build one?"
"Probably, if I had the right equipment." He thought of kicking himself. Obviously they asked him that because they wanted him to build one. His ego was getting him in more trouble.
Elren leaned back in her chair, her face still showing no emotion. "What is your involvement with the Lanteans?"
"What?" He didn't understand what she was asking, he looked to her for clarification, but she was stone faced and didn't repeat the question. "The Lanteans are gone, they disappeared over ten-thousand years ago."
"Doctor Rodney, I don't know what you are trying to accomplish by spouting such nonsense. Now answer the questions."
"Your question doesn't make any sense! Look, I live in Atlantis, but I promise you, I'm not involved with the Lanteans."
"Doctor Rodney..."
"That's Doctor McKay!"
"You're going to help us, whether you like it or not! First you're going to tell us everything you know of the wraith and their technology, then you're going to help us construct weapons to rival theirs! When you're done with that, perhaps I'll decide to let you live."
That was typical of any military. Of course they would recognize him as a genius, but then what did they do? Force him to build weapons for them. He was an astrophysicist, not a weapons engineer!
She waved, signaling a guard who shoved him roughly out of his chair, leading him along out of the room.
Radek took off his glasses and massaged his eyes, unable to bear looking at one more line of data. Each gate malfunction report was like a thousand page book, generated automatically by the DHD and stored for later retrieval. So far, none of the data points were showing anything anomalous. The gate had registered a GDO radio signal being transmitted, but no mass, such as a person. The DHD on the opposite side had initiated an automatic shutdown normally, meaning as far as the gate was concerned, there was no problem.
Radek stood and walked quickly toward the door of the lab, his head dizzy from being stationary too long. The equipment in the corner of his office chimed. Radek stopped and looked back to the corner where his communications equipment was set up. It was the encoded transceiver he and Rodney had set up so personnel could communicate securely in the event of an infiltration or attack.
He walked quickly over to the console, which indicated one message in text had been received. Radek opened the console and read the message displayed.
'M6U773'
There was only one line of text displayed. He looked at the name of the sender, which he had to read twice. It said 'Rodney McKay.'
Rodney despised being forced to build weapons. He disliked it when his own military told him to help calibrate weapons or some other doomsday device, and he loathed being coerced by some alien military. Still, it was the only reason he was being let out of his cell.
Commander Elren ordered that he be given access to their weapons research laboratory. He was to be supervised at all times by the other scientists as well as armed guards. Apparently this planet didn't have any problem at all with forced intellectual labor.
The laboratory was modest by comparison to Earth standards. It seemed as if the most advanced weapon they had was a type of cannon. He wasn't about to mention anything about nuclear weapons.
The lab was in the same facility that the prison cell was, which reminded him a lot of the SGC. He wasn't sure if it was underground, but he didn't see any windows anywhere.
Rodney worked at the desk, painfully drawing out each equation by hand. They had no such thing as computers, making every single calculation and drawing a whole day affair. If he was honest with himself, he really didn't know if he could draw out the plans to built a wraith stunner. He didn't have access to his own team's research on the weapon, meaning everything he drew out was from memory. It wasn't going so well.
Rodney looked up from the desk, massaging his sore neck and blinking as his vision washed out in the dark room around the single desk lamp.
Rodney heard Svard hobbling over with his distinctive limp. The lead scientist supervising him was named 'Tev Svard,' Tev being a title which he considered the equivalent of doctor. The man was old, probably in his eighties. He was missing a finger, which he explained that he lost 'in the line of duty.' Considering who he worked for, the man didn't seem half bad. He hadn't been rude or demanding thus far, and had simply encouraged Rodney whenever he walked by.
"How is the work proceeding?" Svard asked.
"Slowly," Rodney replied. "I don't have any of my own reference materials or anything to go on."
"You'll get along." the man said.
"And what if I can't? What if I can't build what you're asking me to build?"
The man shrugged. "It doesn't matter to me, but I don't think the military will look kindly on that attitude."
Rodney exhaled heavily, knowing that he wouldn't be allowed to stop until he invented something for these people.
"What are you working on now?"
"I'm just going over the power requirements for the device. I'm going to try to match up one of your existing power sources with what we need."
Svard sat down in the chair adjacent to him.
"Why are they doing this to me?" Rodney asked.
"Because you are associated with our enemy I suppose."
"Why do you guys think that I'm with the wraith? What have I done that could possibly suggest that?
"Not the wraith. You tried to travel to Atlantis."
"What? I don't understand, is it the wraith you're at war with or the Lanteans, which who I might add have been gone for over ten-thousand years."
"They're one in the same." Svard answered. Rodney could only assume that his people had some weird misguided idea about the Ancients. Svard stared at Rodney strangely. "Ten thousand years?"
"That's approximately how long Atlantis has been sitting at the bottom of the ocean abandoned. We found it completely empty a few years ago."
Svard stared at Rodney as if he were crazy. "Doctor McKay," Svard started politely, as if he were explaining something to a child. "I don't know where you've gotten that idea from, but my last visit to Atlantis occurred only five years ago when I traveled there to search their great library of knowledge. It was just before all this mess with the wraith started."
"What? No, the dialing computer was locked and set to only receive incoming travelers from my..." McKay faltered, his mind connecting the dots after he started speaking. In that instant he knew, rather suspected that he knew what had happened to him. Svard claimed that he had visited Atlantis only five years ago, whereas Rodney knew the city was abandoned and locked five years ago. Both realities could not be true, and yet apparently both were. Rodney was barely paying attention, but Svard had said 'just before all this mess with the wraith had started.' That event would have had to occur over a century before the Ancients abandoned the city and left for Earth.
"Oh my..." Rodney said, leaning back quickly in his chair and almost falling over. He looked around himself and laughed, realizing that he was seeing events in real time that occurred nearly ten millennia before he was born. "Well, that would explain a lot of things, like why they wouldn't answer my radio calls." He leaned forward and looked Svard in the eye, smiling. "It's because they weren't there! They don't be there for another ten thousand one hundred years!"
Svard said nothing and was very still as he stared Rodney in the eye.
"I've traveled back in time roughly ten thousand years!" he said excitedly. "But how that could be possible? Probably a solar flare of some sort along the route."
"What are you on about?" Svard asked.
"A solar flare," Rodney said, wide eyed and excitedly. "When I stepped through the gate, the wormhole must have been routed close by to a solar flare, which imparted enough energy to the matter stream to force it to seek another gate in order to dissipate the amount of energy being absorbed. It just so happens that the planet I stepped out on was the closest in space-time to the energy level required for the gate gate to maintain safe operation."
Rodney's smile faded. "Oh no. No, no, no, I can't be here right now. I'm altering history just by being here. With how far back I've traveled, I could step on an insect and irreparably change the future."
"Speak reasonably and calm down, doctor."
Rodney quieted down and looked to him. "Now I can't pretend to understand everything you've just said," Svard said quietly. "but am I to understand that you've traveled back in time?"
"Yes," Rodney said irritably. "Look, I don't mean to sound rude, but I can't be here right now. I can't give you any more information without potentially damaging the time-line, that is if I haven't already."
"If this is indeed true, then I understand your position, but that is not going to sit well with the others."
Rodney was amazed that this old man was keeping up with him as well as he was. These people's level of technology wouldn't suggest that they had theorized anything remotely like time travel. Perhaps Svard had come across the concept before; he said he had visited Atlantis to search their library.
Svard ran his hand through what thin gray hair he had left. "This certainly has to be the most extreme case I've ever heard of."
"Then you believe me?" Rodney asked, astonished.
"You don't come across as the type to lie very effectively."
"Uh, thank you?" Rodney said, wondering if that was a compliment.
"I believe your story is genuine, however your worry of 'damaging time,' as you say is unfounded."
"What would make you say that? Look, I've traveled so far back, that literally stepping on an insect could change history as I know it. Have you ever heard of the butterfly effect?" Rodney put on a sarcastic look. "Of course not, you probably don't even know what a butterfly is."
Svard shook his head. "That is not possible. You are here because you were meant to be here."
"Yes, well that's comforting, but it doesn't make it true."
"It is true based on what I've studied on the subject. You can't effect any change which wasn't already a part of your history as you know it."
"Oh, I see." Rodney said sarcastically. "And do you have a PhD in astrophysics?" Rodney clammed his mouth when he remembered the man he was talking to was almost twice as old as he was. And he did have his world's equivalent of a PhD.
"Doctor McKay, I don't know what your qualifications are, but I spent years assisting the Lanteans in maintaining the gate network. I've learned quite a bit about gate malfunctions."
"Oh, well, I, uh."
"I've experienced to a lesser extent exactly what you're going through right now. Believe me when I say you do not have to worry about altering history."
A blaring alarm sounded, a kind of klaxon horn which alternately grew louder and more quiet.
"What's that?" Rodney searched around the room frantically, looking for a source of danger. Rodney looked back to Svard, only to see an empty chair where the man had been seated only a moment before.
Rodney stood up and turned completely around the room searching for Svard, but he was nowhere in sight.
The half dozen or so guards who were watching him jolted into action and left through the single exit to the lab.
Rodney became excited for a moment, thinking that it was a good thing that he was alone now and that he would be able to escape. Then it dawned on him; there was something out there attacking these people, and he had nothing do defend himself with.
Rodney ran around the room from desk to desk, looking for something that remotely resembled a weapon. "Come on! This is a weapons research laboratory!" He ran by a desk which had a very large metallic gun shaped object displayed in a fixture. "Hello hello," he said grinning. He picked up the object and examined it, taking note of the muzzle, the trigger and the action. This was a weapon all right, it had to be. He held the weapon sideways to himself aiming at the concrete wall. He looked in the direction it was pointing and after ensuring there was nobody there, he pulled the trigger. A pressurized jet of water flew out the end and soaked the papers sitting on a desk six feet away. "You've gotta be kidding me!?"
A series of dull metallic thuds sounded around him. Rodney edged toward the open door, glancing around the corner quickly to ensure there was nobody there. After seeing the empty hall, he proceeded through. He didn't quite have a mental layout of the place yet, in fact, the only place he was sure he could find was his prison cell.
The hall came to a wide spot, a junction where it split off radially in three different directions. Rodney looked around for some sort of landmark or sign to guide him. He looked down and saw a circular path drawn around the spot where he was standing. It reminded him of a...
The floor opened up with a loud humming noise and he fell through a wide lit tunnel. His eyes said he was falling but he couldn't feel it at all. He looked at his shoes and confirmed he was still standing on the same floor. A bright light engulfed him.
He was falling upwards now. "Oh crap," he said when he understood that it was a ring transporter. He was staring at a wall, one of a certain construction which he recognized.
"No," he said desperately, "this can't be happening." He turned around to face a whole group of wraith drones facing him, their weapons trained on him.
He closed his eyes tightly. "This isn't happening, it's not real."