Three gifts Rodney wants to give his team
Late at night, on the nights he would like to go see if Sheppard feels up for a beer, only the man has looked far too ragged around the edges and needs a full night in his bed; when all the repairs and cover-ups of other people's mistakes currently tugging at his attention are done, when he has updated his mission reports and sent his scientists schedules for the upcoming weeks; when he has even caught up with the "progress" made in the zoology department and he still cannot sleep, Rodney McKay pours himself the wonderful coffee substitute from PX3-494 that keeps your mind awake while those parts of your body you're not currently using, rest, switches on his three most heavily encrypted laptops and goes to work.
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The first one shows everything Rodney knows about Ronon's gun; about how it's built, the way it's powered, how to achieve the different settings. There's even a file retelling the full history lesson Ronon once gave the team when he had broken up with Amelia and gotten impossibly drunk.
His goal is to hybridize it with everything he knows about the Daedalus' Asgard beam, every measly bit of knowledge those smarmy little aliens have deigned to share with Novak, Carter and Lee. The fact that an idea dredged up from the intellectual legacy of Brendan Gall is what will ultimately make it work does not hurt as much anymore as it once did. If anything, it makes him proud.
Hopefully, one day Rodney will be able to present Ronon with a hand-held weapon that can obliterate darts with a single shot.
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The second laptop shows everything he and Zelenka know about shields – the shield protecting the Daedalus when it engages Wraith hives and Goa'uld motherships, the miniature shields surrounding the Puddlejumpers, the giant shield holding together an atmosphere as Atlantis soars through space, and finally, the shield protecting Keras' little colony of Lost Boys (and Girls, as well as, by now, young Men and Women).
Rodney has the mechanical construction nearly finished, the only real problem is power – the best solution, of course, would be a ZPM, but in case they never find another one, or in case they find one but need it themselves too desperately to give it away, or have to give it to Earth or any other allies who are not the Athosians... If only he could capture and re-direct solar energy efficiently enough to make it work, he would be golden. At some point, he knows, he will have to bring Zelenka in on this one, but he's not quite there yet.
One day, he wants to give Teyla a shield that will mean the Athosians will never have to fear a culling again.
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The third laptop sports the beginning specs of a starship. A compilation of everything he knows about the Daedalus, Atlantis, the Aurora, the Orion, Goa'uld ships and Wraith Hives.
It should be the most exciting project of them all: Strong guns and protective shields are necessities, a giant space ship constructed by his mind and own two hands would be cool. Still, it's the one Rodney only ever touches when he is otherwise out of ideas. Because the gun will make Ronon happy, albeit in a fierce caveman-like, Ronon way. A shield to protect her people will make Teyla happy. A warship will make John bounce on his toes excitedly, maybe even dance around the gate room in glee, but Rodney has the suspicion that it will take a lot more than one warship (or even a fleet, once they know how to do it) to make John Sheppard happy.
Rodney is an intelligent man, and he's confident that he'll figure out what that something more is eventually. Until then, the warship will have to do.
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