"Colonel!" called McKay, jogging to catch up with Sheppard. "Zelenka says he's got that piece of Ancient technology we brought back from MXM 142 to power up."
"We'll take a look when we get back. I would have expected you to be more excited about looking for Stargates for that gate-bridge thing you're building," commented Sheppard.
McKay sighed. "That's taking longer than I'd expected. Anyway, I was hoping we could take a look at this before we go. I've already sent Teyla and Ronon to Zelenka."
Sheppard sent him an annoyed side-glance. "We'll rake a look. But we're gonna have to make it quick."
"…it seems very complicated," Zelenka explained from behind the weird looking piece of technology. "We haven't quite discovered what it does yet but it has a very strong power source built in to it."
"Fascinating," said Sheppard boredly. He, McKay, Teyla and Ronon were standing in front of the Ancient tech. "It would be great to stare at the strange looking piece of technology all day, but we have to go."
"Of course. I'll tell you when I have more information," Zelenka told them.
Zelenka stood up from underneath the machine and as he did so he hit his head on the edge of it, pressing a button. The machine powered up and sent a beam out in front of it, at SGA-1.
McKay closed his eyes against the bright light when he open his eyes again he found himself standing in a large field. There was a small town in front of him. Sheppard, Teyla and Ronon were staring at it.
"McKay, what the hell just happened?" asked Sheppard.
"How do you expect me to know?!" grumbled McKay.
"Looks like we're on another planet," Ronon observed.
"Looks like Earth," muttered Sheppard, he was looking at the town.
Scully glared at Mulder as he examined his plate with intensity as they walked back to their hotel for the night.
"Mulder we are here to investigate x-file murders, not plates that have nothing to do with the case!" she told him.
"Scully, it does have something to do with the case!" Mulder insisted. "Before each string of murders recorded in the x-files, the owner of this plate at each time says that it glowed!"
Scully sighed. "I refuse to believe a plate with stars on it can glow of its own accord."
"Why would more than one person claim that it can?" retorted Mulder. "It also doesn't just have stars on it, it has thirty-nine little symbols around the edge that I can't make sense of."
"Mulder," said Scully. "plates don't glow. This is not helping us solve anything."
Scully realised Mulder had stopped dead in his tracks.
"What now?" she asked.
"Scully," said Mulder. "Scully, it's glowing."
Scully stared at the plate, it was glowing a light blue colour.
"Mulder… what did you do to it?" questioned Scully wondering if he'd pressed a button or something.
"Nothing," said Mulder, staring at the plate.
The plate flashed four times and stopped glowing.
"I think your little joke just ran out of batteries," remarked Scully dryly.
"I didn't do that," replied Mulder.
"Of course not," said Scully sarcastically and was about to say more when Mulder spoke again.
"Someone's coming. Come on."
He led her off the path and lay down in the long grass. Scully lay down next to him.
"You don't really believe that it's our murderer coming, do you?" she asked.
"Shhhh."
Scully rolled her eyes and listened, she could hear someone talking.
"...possible we've gone back in time?" someone asked, Scully frowned.
"Hmmm. I don't think so, if we'd gone back in time we'd probably still be on Lantea," a second voice answered.
"Well, what the hell happened then?" demanded the first person.
"I don't know, because, just like you, I just got here!" snapped the second person.
"McKay," grumbled the first person.
"Okay, I'll scan for power sources, if we've somehow been transported there has to be a piece of technology here somewhere," replied 'McKay'.
Scully wondered if these people were putting on an act for Mulder. She raised her head slightly to look. There were four people. One was tall and had dark eyes and dreadlocks; he was hanging back with a fairly short red headed woman. The other two people were standing in front, one was slightly taller, he had messy black hair and hazel eyes, the shorter man was facing away from her but she could tell he had short brown hair and was a bit fat. The two men at the front and the woman were wearing dark blue clothing and the tow men were wearing black military tack vests.
The other man with the dreadlocks wore a long coat and carried a strange gun. The other three were also all armed.
The short fat guy took something out of his vest.
"Mmm. There's an energy reading coming from over there." The short fat guy who had been called McKay turned and faced them.
Scully frowned, he was pointing at her and Mulder. The other three turned and looked.
"Great." The first guy who'd spoken, the guy with the messy black hair, started to move towards them.
"Wait," broke in McKay. "I'm also detecting two life signs in the same place."
What the hell? thought Scully. The conversation just kept getting stranger.
All four people raised their guns and pointed them into the grass where she and Mulder were.
Scully sighed and stood up. It was totally beyond her how they'd known they were there. Mulder stood up too with an annoyed grunt, leaving the plate on the ground so the strangers couldn't see it.
"I am Special Agent Dana Scully with the FBI and this is my partner; Special Agent Fox Mulder," announced Scully.
They lowered their weapons.
The guy with the messy black hair spoke up.
"Hi, I'm Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, this is Doctor Rodney McKay, Teyla Emmagan and Ronon Dex."
"Yes, yes, yes. Now if we're done with the introductions, this is going to sound like a weird question, but where are we?" inquired Dr McKay.
Scully started to reply, but Mulder got in first, ignoring McKay's question and asking his own.
"You said something about time travel?"
Scully rolled her eyes.
"Uh…" said Colonel Sheppard. "You heard that?"
"Okay, whatever, they heard our somewhat strange conversation. Can I see the thing that giving off the energy readings, the one that you oh so cleverly left on the ground?" McKay was talking to Mulder.
Scully briefly closed her eyes. They could not be talking about the plate…
"What's the FBI?" asked the dreadlock guy, Ronon.
Colonel Sheppard, who was apparently the only military person there, turned to him.
"I'll tell you later."
"Hello? I asked to look at the energy source!" interrupted McKay, the rather arrogant doctor.
Mulder eyed him suspiciously and picked up the plate.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me," said McKay.
Scully noticed Colonel Sheppard was trying to keep a straight face.
Mulder had noticed too. "What?" he asked.
"It's a plate with stars on it," explained Colonel Sheppard.
"And the gate symbols," added McKay.
"You know what it is?" asked Mulder.
"It's a Starplate!" sniggered Colonel Sheppard.
Scully really didn't get it.
"Ohhh no," groaned Dr McKay. "The scanner picking up the plate properly now, it says we're in a parallel universe."
"With a Starplate!" Colonel Sheppard was struggling not to laugh.
Scully was beginning to doubt all of their sanity. They were worse than Mulder.
"You're from a parallel universe?"
Suddenly Mulder was intrigued.
"Yes," said McKay. "Don't lock us up, we're serious."
Scully noticed the Colonel roll his eyes.
"Now they're even more likely to lock us up, probably in a mental hospital!"
"Parallel universe? I didn't know that was possible," commented Ronon.
"How do we get back?" asked Teyla.
"Don't know yet. Probably using the plate somehow. Look being here could be really bad. There are consequences for going to parallel universes, luckily my scanners giving me information stored in the plate and it says there are no Ancients or Stargates in this universe, so its almost the exact opposite to ours. But, the Ancients from our universe have been here; they came here, and made the Starplate. They only came back once though, because wraith got through into this universe the Ancients abandoned the idea," McKay explained.
"Wraith?" asked Mulder. "What's a wraith?"
"An alien that sucks the life out of you by placing its right hand on your chest," replied McKay offhandedly and got an annoyed side-glance from Sheppard.
Scully sighed, now he'd done it. They were investigating murders were strange murders where the victim was aged to the point of being practically a skeleton with nothing but a handprint on the chest. That and Mulder had heard the word 'alien'.
"Alien? Does the victim age?" asked Mulder.
"Yes," said McKay. "Pretty much to dust if the wraith feeds long enough, you see; that's how it eats."
Scully shook her head. "That's impossible."
"No its not," Colonel Sheppard told her.
"Yes it is. The chemical processes and internal structures of a creature like that are impossible," Scully told him.
"Oh really?" asked McKay. "And you know this because you've been everywhere in the universe and discovered every chemical and but of scientific knowledge there is to discover."
"Scully," said Mulder. "It has to be possible, its an explanation to how all these people's bodies have turned up so old when their friends and family had seen them alive and well the day before?"
"Please tell me he did not just say that," begged McKay.
"He did," grunted Ronon.
"There is a wraith here?" asked Teyla.
"Oh crap," muttered Sheppard.
Scully wondered just how many more alien believers she would meet in her lifetime.
"These murders are not the work of some life sucking alien," Scully informed Mulder. "This is some sick person killing people and then swapping the bodies with people who have been dead a long time. There is no way any creature can age someone in the way this is happening."
"You must believe that it is possible," insisted Teyla. "All of us have witnessed it with our own eyes."
"And some of us accidentally got demoted to lunch," muttered Sheppard under his breath.
"You've seen it happening?" asked Scully doubtfully, ignoring Sheppard's comment and wondering if she should have already called the mental hospital.
"Yes we have," said Ronon.
Suddenly there was a loud scream from the forest behind them. Without saying a word all six of them ran towards it.
Authors Note: Please review this! I have no idea if anyone will read it so I won't post the next chapter until I get a review, just incase no-ones reading it. I accept anonymous reviews!