Thanks for SlayersGrl for letting me borrow her story Ghosts as a kind of prequel to this and to pennydreadful for the beta.

Part 1 – The Chair

It had taken two hours to track down the energy signatures. McKay had been so excited about them he had talked incessantly for the first hour.

"It could be a ZedPM, I'm telling you!"

They were on foot since whoever had lived on the planet had placed obelisks strategically in-front of the gate making travel by Jumper (and Wraith dart) impossible. The planet was hot, dusty and desolate. The wind was relentless and howled around them driving sand and grit into any exposed area - eyes, nostrils and ears. As a result everyone was tired and nerves were frayed.

McKay's excitement had peaked when the readings had been traced to a ruined Ancient Outpost. It had taken them an hour and lots of swearing to convince the Ancient technology to let them in and now McKay had been trying to get the main power back on line for four hours straight. He was making little progress.

Teyla and Ford were keeping watch outside the building although the dry, dusty planet seemed entirely void of sentient life. Life itself, was regrettably not absent, and was in fact abundant in the form of small biting ant-like insects.

Sheppard was frustrated and short tempered as he was on guard-the-geek duty (Ford should NEVER be allowed to name things, EVER) and was bored of watching McKay work. He wanted to take out his bad temper on someone and since his favourite target was close at hand he had just the outlet he needed.

"Remind me, McKay, just what are we doing here?" he asked in an insolent drawl.

McKay ignored him and remained focussed on the control chair in the middle of the room, muttering softly to himself as he worked. Ford and Teyla, who were standing just outside the door of the facility, exchanged an amused look knowing what was coming next.

"McKay, are you listening to me?"

There was still no reaction, so Sheppard bent down picked up a small stone from the floor and flicked it so that it pinged into McKay's backside as he bent over the panel near the floor. McKay's scowl deepened but aside from that he gave no sign of having noticed. More stones followed until there was a scattering of gravel lying around the base of the chair.

"Stop ignoring me, McKay." He scuffed in the dirt to find another projectile of the right size. "I'm warning you," he continued, "there aren't many of these little pebbles left. I'm going to have to upgrade to rocks soon."

With an exaggerated sigh McKay straightened up from the panel he was examining and stood there, legs akimbo, arms folded aggressively across his chest.

"Why do you have to keep on bugging me?" he demanded. "I'm trying to do my job without having to stop every three minutes to answer the same question that you have already asked me half a dozen times. It's not my fault that you have the attention span of a mosquito so why don't you grow up, put yourself out of your misery and work out the answer for yourself?"

"We're here to find out about Ancient technology and to see if we can find a ZedPM," Sheppard parroted as if by rote.

"And that is what we are doing, now please desist from your childish antics and let me work," McKay snapped and then turned back to chair.

"But we found this place hours ago, McKay and you're still not letting me play with it!" Sheppard's eyes had lit up at the sight of the control chair sitting in the ruined Outpost and he was itching to sit down, fire it up and see what it could do. He loved the feeling that the control chairs gave him and he couldn't wait to experience it again.

McKay gave another aggravated sigh and said through gritted teeth, "You are not playing with this one until I've figured out what the problem with it is."

"But how much longer are you going to be?" whined Sheppard in the tone he knew would yank McKay's chain and flicked another pebble against McKay's backside.

"Right, that is enough, Sheppard!" exploded McKay. "How exactly does throwing stones around delicate Ancient Technology help us? Please enlighten me as to how annoying the smart one who is trying to figure this out is helping here? Hm? Oh, I forgot, it's not. It's just letting your inner four old out." McKay was getting ratty and a full on rant wouldn't be far off if Sheppard kept this up.

"Why won't you let me sit on it to see if I can turn it on?" Sheppard was pointing towards the control chair in the middle of the room.

McKay sent the bucket down the well of patience again and came up with the last dregs that were left before he completely lost his rag. "I won't let you sit on it, because I don't understand what is causing the fluctuations in power that I am picking up. I also can't figure out a way to interface with it yet. It is dangerous to just leap into Ancient Technology without knowing the implications," he said in a dangerously calm voice.

"Come on, why don't you let me try? It looks just like the one in Antarctica and the one in Atlantis. You're just being a spoil sport." Sheppard tried to give him his winning smile forgetting that he had
a) tried it too often with McKay in the past and it had never worked anyway
and
b) a fine coating of plaster dust on his face, beads of sweat on his forehead and insect bites along his cheek which reduced his charm somewhat.

"Major, there is a big difference between this chair and the one in Atlantis which is essentially the same as the one in Antarctica. This chair is interfaced with a computer system, that I have never seen the like of before. They are interfaced with one another in a way that is completely unfamiliar to me. There are some strange power fluctuations going on and, as I think I may have said around one thousand times before, I can't interface with either the chair or the computer system. If you sit on the chair, you're on your own! Now, will you please let me get back to my work?"

With the air of those whose suffering is long and unjust, McKay bent back down to resume his study of the chair control panel.

Sheppard knew he was being childish but he couldn't help himself. Scuffing his foot on the floor roughly he asked, "So what's the problem with the interface, can't find the USB port, McKay? You know you could try turning it off and then turning it back on again, it always works for me if I lose a network connection."

A snort of suppressed laughter came from Ford at McKay's snarl of frustration. He turned to see the scientist in full freak out mode making flapping motions and hissing noises at the Major.

"Go away, go away, go away! Stop distracting me you aggravating, over grown, child! No, you cannot sit on the CHAIR!" Turning back to the control panel he muttered to himself, "Christ on a bike, Dr Who never has this problem with his side-kicks….."

"Who's the side kick around here?" said Sheppard which earned him a look of loathing from McKay. "Come on, McKay, you've been poking around with it for hours now and I'm getting hungry. Perhaps we can send a team here another day to tinker with it? Wouldn't you like to go home now, McKay?"

"No, it might be powered by a ZedPM and in case you hadn't realised it with a fleet of Wraith hive ships on the way, we could really do with one."

Even in his foul mood Sheppard recognised the sense in that statement. There was silence for another half an hour.

Jeez, thought Sheppard, it's getting hot in here. He watched McKay whose face was flushed from the heat and dirty from all the dust and rubble that was lying around. He couldn't hold in his temper or remain silent any longer.

"Look, McKay, I think we're wasting our time here. Why don't you just let me sit on the damn thing, power it up, then you can see if there is a ZedPM anywhere in this complex, if there is, you can grab it, and we can go home and have the rest of the day off."

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I said so."

"Why are you saying so?"

"Because, as I have been trying to tell you, if these power fluctuations are what I think they might be there is a fine chance that if you sit on this chair you will become interfaced with it and I might not be able to find the off switch. OK?" McKay snapped back.

McKay looked around and saw the mulish expression on Sheppard's face and he flipped, "Right, let me put this in simple bang-bang-what-can-I-blow-up-now military terms, if you sit in chair head might fry. Got it? Or maybe you already did and that explains the hair…." He spun around and went back to his meticulous examination of the chair.

Sheppard scowled and sauntered over to the door where Teyla and Ford stood. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, dug out his aviator glasses and put them on. He was mad at McKay, mad at himself for being a child and mad at this damn hell hole of a dust bowl planet.

"Doesn't look like we'll be back in time to watch the game now, does it, Sir," quipped Ford cheerily as Sheppard approached.

Sheppard's scowl deepened. Being mad at Ford was now added to his list. "So Lieutenant, when are you planning to finish the munitions inventory I asked you to do last week? I think I'd like the report tomorrow morning around 10.00 hours." Fixing Ford with a sour look he walked away.

Ford's face fell as his plans for the evening were blown out of the water. He was surprised at Sheppard and didn't think it was like him to react like this to a bit of friendly teasing from his team.

Teyla's concerned slight frown suggested that she concurred, eventually she asked, "Tell me, Aidan. Why is it that Major Sheppard is so eager to return to Atlantis for this game? It is the recording that he has seen many times before is it not? This mission, although not particularly enjoyable, is not that different from many others we have been on and he has not reacted so on those occasions."

Ford shrugged his shoulders expressively before answering, "Certainly is the game he has seen thousands of time before, but maybe the difference is that this time Zelenka's supplying beer and the cooks are cracking out the last of the popcorn." He didn't look convinced.

"Ah," Teyla did not look convinced either and turned to look at Sheppard who was now moodily kicking the walls of the ruined Outpost.

She was about to speak again when an irate McKay stamped out of the ruins and yelled, "Sheppard! I would appreciate it if you could desist from kicking the walls of the unstable, ten thousand year old structure. You're bringing down dust and I am particularly susceptible to allergies and don't want to have an asthma attack OK? I also really don't want this coming down on top of my head. Capisch?" Sarcasm was dripping off him.

Sheppard scowled and sat down on the ground, leaning back on the wall with exaggerated care and, shifting his P-90 into a more comfortable position across his lap, he settled back to try and sleep away the time in the sun and to forget what the date was today.

He had passed an hour in a lazy daze whilst Ford and Teyla kept watch, a privilege of rank he told himself, to lessen the guilt, when he was disturbed by McKay shouting for him.

"Sheppard! Sheppard! Get your lazy military ass in here!" McKay's voice was strident at the best of times but when it dragged him away from a particularly satisfying day dream involving souped up jumpers versus a MIG then it was particularly bad. The only consolation was that if McKay wanted him, he probably wanted him to sit in the chair.

He scrambled to his feet and stomped (there was no other word for it) back over to the Outpost where he shouldered his way past Teyla and Ford without saying a word. They'd been on this damn dust bowl of a planet for eight hours now and he hoped to hell that McKay was going to make it worthwhile.

Sheppard snatched off his glasses as he entered the room and squinted as his eyes adjusted to the dim light inside. He could see McKay looking cross, tired and terminally grumpy next to the chair which now had a plethora of cables vomiting out of its innards.

"Gonna let me play now?" he asked plaintively.

McKay just pursed his lips tighter together and snorted. "No," he said shortly. "I can't get it to work, we're going home."

"What?" Sheppard's voice cracked with a combination of stress, anger and disappointment. "But you always fix things!"

"Well as you all so eloquently reminded me, I am not superman," said McKay through clenched teeth. "I have no doubt that I can fix it but I can't do it yet. I need some stuff from my lab and then we'll head back again as soon as we can. There is something here. I just don't know what yet."

Biting his lip to keep his foul temper in check, Sheppard turned and said, "OK, Ford, Teyla, we're moving out. McKay can't fix this thing so we're heading home. We've got another four hours of day light on this dust bowl, it's a two hours trek to the gate so we'd better start moving before it turns midnight and McKay turns into a pumpkin." He knew his comments were unfair but his bad mood needed an outlet.

"Oh for Christ's sake," hissed McKay as he finished packing up his stuff. "I can't do everything."

Sheppard relented for a moment. He could see McKay was just as tired as he was. He'd been working non-stop whilst Sheppard had been sunning himself and it was clear that he was bitterly disappointed to be going home empty handed. He reached out and slapped McKay on the shoulder. "Sorry, buddy, in a bit of a bad mood today" he muttered by way of apology and walked off towards the chair before McKay's astonished eyes could meet his own.

Trying to hit a more non-confrontational tone he asked, "Going to leave all this stuff here?" and reached out to touch an array of crystals that McKay had connected up to the panel in the base of the control chair.

As his hands brushed the crystals he felt a jolt of power entering his finger tips and heard McKay shouting urgently, "Don't touch that!" He snatched back his hand guiltily and then jumped at the sound of weapons fire from outside the Outpost.

Ignoring McKay's baffled look as he turned his head from the crystals to Sheppard and then back again, Sheppard barked, "Ford, Teyla, report," into his radio. He headed swiftly for the door taking up a cautious position and peering out to try to spot Teyla and Ford. He could see them crouched behind boulders near the top of one of the gullies on the far side of the clearing around the Outpost.

"Unfriendlies coming up the hill towards us, Major," came Ford's reply. "They've opened fire with some kind of energy weapon. There's at least twenty of them."

"Damn," cursed Sheppard as he took the safety off his P-90.

"Um, Major?" asked McKay.

"What?" replied Sheppard, really not wanting any distractions at the moment whilst he planned their escape.

"Um, you should be dead. You just touched an open power conduit. Why aren't you dead?" asked McKay.

"I don't know! Maybe if we wait here long enough then I will be dead and then the question becomes kind of academic doesn't it? Look - we are in trouble and we need to get out of here fast. Take only what you need and what you can't leave behind and run. Follow me and stick close." Waking up to the sound of weapons fire, McKay gave one last puzzled look at the crystal array and hastily scrambled to do as the Major said.

They made their way in painstaking stages back towards the stargate. Sheppard would run ahead, lay down covering fire whilst Teyla or Ford would run up to his position with McKay and then whoever was keeping their six would retreat and the whole manoeuvre would start again. How they were managing to keep their pursuers at bay Sheppard had no idea – they were out numbered and out gunned and were quickly draining their reserves of energy and ammunition.

They had been on their way for three hours now and dusk was beginning to fall. It was as Ford was retreating to their position that he was hit full in stomach and went down screaming, clutching his stomach with both arms. Teyla ran out as Sheppard laid down covering fire to drag him up to their position.

Just as they were nearly under cover Teyla was hit in her right arm. She fell, gasping with pain, to the floor, just to get up again and resume dragging Ford, this time one handed, to their position of shelter. Ford's breath was coming in short gasps as he watched the blood well up from the gaping hole in his stomach. Sheppard was grim faced as he ripped open field bandages, trying desperately to stem the flow and to keep Ford's ruined guts from slipping out through the remains of his stomach wall.

Sheppard looked at his team. His fighters were down, he had to do something or else none of them would make it to the stargate. He made the only decision he could have in the circumstances.

"Listen, I'm going to lead them off and then ditch them under cover of darkness. McKay, Teyla, you take Ford back to the stargate and get back. I'll dial in when it's dark. Go!" ordered Sheppard.

It was an illustration of how precarious the situation was that McKay did not even put up a token protest. McKay, white-faced, nodded, moved to Ford's side and hoisted the younger man unsteadily to his feet, Ford's arm over his shoulders. Teyla took her belt and, with Sheppard's help, secured her wounded arm to her side and then moved to support Ford's other side. Together McKay and Teyla began to drag him to the stargate.

The last they saw of Sheppard was a dark figure running agilely down the gully they had just come up firing his P 90 wildly making as much noise as he possibly could.

Ford was in agony. He'd bitten through his lip and was muttering, "Oh my God, I'm gonna die. Grandma, I'm gonna die." Tears were streaming down his face as he fought the urge to scream. McKay gritted his teeth against the coppery stench of Ford's blood that was dripping down his front and concentrated on taking as much of Ford's weight as he could. Teyla tried to offer what comfort she could through teeth clenched against the pain of a compound fracture and the effort of running whilst carrying her share of the deadweight of the young man.

It took them forty minutes to reach the stargate. McKay dialled and radioed Atlantis to warn them they were coming in hot.

"Atlantis control. This is McKay. We need a med team and security in the gate room. We're coming in hot. Sheppard will be following in no less than an hour."

He was repeating his call for a medical team even as Ford lost the last of his self control and started screaming in agony as their rough progress put more pressure on his torn stomach and guts than he could bear. He was screaming into McKay's ear deafening him so he couldn't hear the questions coming in from the Atlantis control tower.

McKay trusted that Atlantis had lowered the shield and he and Teyla ran forward as fast as they could to get Ford through. The cool of the event horizon was stark contrast to the stifling heat of the planet.

"Get Carson's team here RIGHT NOW," screamed McKay as he and Teyla gently lowered Ford down to the ground.

Elizabeth ran to the team as they staggered through the event horizon. She stopped suddenly when she saw their condition and exchanged a perplexed look with Grodin who had been following hot on her heels. With a low moan of pain Teyla sat down heavily on the floor next to Ford and leant over her shattered elbow. She began to keen with the agony of the compounded break. No-one in the control room moved an inch.

"Didn't you hear me Elizabeth, get a med team here, NOW!" ordered McKay as he frantically stuffed field bandages into the gaping hole in Ford's stomach that had his full attention. He hadn't noticed the strange reactions to their return from the control room crew.

The strange immobility was broken as Carson and his medical team ran into the control room at full pelt with gurneys and medical kits at the ready.

"Thank God!" said McKay. "He's taken a belly shot. It's nasty, I can't stop it bleeding and Teyla's been shot in the elbow. I haven't had time to do anything for her but it looks like the joint is shattered." Carson was looking at McKay with an expression of confusion.

"Rodney…" he began to say as he watched McKay pack field bandage after field bandage onto Ford's stomach. He put out his hand to hold McKay's trembling ones as he desperately ripped the wrappings off more bandages.

"What the hell are you doing? What the hell are waiting for, Carson? He's dying!" yelled McKay at him as Ford lay writhing on the floor blood spurting from arteries. "Can't you see he's haemorrhaging?"

Carson slowly shook his head and grabbed McKay's shaking hands in his. "Leave it, Rodney," he ordered.

"What do you mean, Carson? It can't be too late. You can save him," McKay's voice broke with emotion and he stood up, backing away from Carson who was kneeling next to Ford looking at the screaming young man with an expression of deep concern on his face.

Just then the wormhole disengaged and McKay's eyes turned up in his head and he fell as if pole-axed to the floor. Cracking his head sharply on the floor he lay limply besides the figures of Ford and Teyla who had collapsed in the exact same instant.

Carson threw off his stunned inactivity and leapt forward to start work on the unconscious figures.

"Come on, people! Let's get these three down to the Infirmary."

Once the hubbub had died down, Grodin walked slowly to the floor where Ford had lain writhing and screaming in agony. He turned and looked back at Elizabeth who had not moved during the whole commotion.

"I don't understand it, Elizabeth," he said. "There's no blood on the floor and I didn't see any on Ford or any sign of injury at all on either him or Teyla…. Did you?"

Trying to clear the memory of the screaming Ford from her mind, she shook her head. "No," she replied, "I didn't."