Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Stargate Atlantis.
A/N: This is my first story, urged on by Hifield. This is in response to the Downtime Atlantis challenge by Shadows-of-Realm and theicemenace. This comes in at exactly 300 words.
"Dr McKay to the Gateroom immediately," the intercom blared. Rodney, startled out of a nice dream involving Katie Brown, jumped up as the urgent call was repeated.
Quickly throwing on his uniform he rushed out to the control room. When he arrived he could see Sheppard, Ronon, Dr Weir and Teyla in a group of very troubled looking people.
"What's so important you called me out of a sound sleep," he groused at no one in particular.
"Look at the Gate," Sheppard said with grave concern written on his face.
As Rodney turned, he could hear a dialing sequence begin. Then as he watched, mouth agape, it stopped after six Chevrons had encoded, and shut back down.
"How long has this been going on?" he snapped.
"It started about 20 minutes ago, when one Chevron encoded. Now it's up to six," Elizabeth said with palpable fear in her voice.
"When I was on Athos yesterday, a trader said he had heard of a planet being attacked by an alien race they had never seen before, and they got there by randomly dialing until the Stargate opened. He said they were butchered alive," Teyla interjected.
"Security teams deploy with arms ready," Sheppard barked to his men, and they immediately fell into place.
Rodney was startled out of his daze by Sheppard's commanding voice, "Do something, McKay." Rodney literally ran to the control console and started pounding on the keys.
"If they get through the Gate, I'll use you as a shield," Ronon yelled.
'I'm trying, I'm trying," Rodney shouted desperately.
The sequence started up, Rodney froze in terror, the seventh Chevron encoded, all the marines cocked their weapons, the wormhole stabilized…...Samantha Carter stepped from behind the gate with her new handheld dialing device, and everyone in unison yelled "April Fools Rodney!"