Disclaimer: Stargate belongs to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc, no infringement of any rights is intended.

Spoilers: Spoilers for the previous three Deliverance stories and various SGA episodes

Warnings: Violence and adult themes, though nothing graphic. Heck, it's a 'Deliverance' story. You know the score by now!

Summary: What do you get if you cross an experimental Stargate with a mad Medulsan? Big trouble for Major John Sheppard, that's what. Shep whump a-plenty, plus some action and adventure thrown in for good measure.

This story is mostly set on Earth, prior to the Atlantis mission, and you really need to read the Deliverance trilogy first or it will make no sense at all! Appearances from SG-1 and some other folks from the SGC, plus a few of our SGA favourites.

Special thanks go to both Sterenyk Strey and lizlou57 for their help with betaing this story. They have worked their socks off for me, so all mistakes that remain are mine. The story is almost complete, I'm just working through Chapter 28 out of 30, and will be posted every other day until complete, then a little quicker once it's all down and edited. And don't worry, I've never let a story beat me yet, so it will get finished!

All that said, here's Chapter 1. Read, hopefully enjoy, and please let me know what you think. :)

Chapter 1

He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this angry. No, strike that, he could remember, but this was very, very different. The last time, McKay had switched on Elizabeth's nanites to save her life without being certain he could keep control of them. Sure, McKay had bluffed and told him he could, but the scientist's body language and erratic eye movements had told Sheppard he was lying about his supposed level of confidence. This time...this time he was messing with something that was so far beyond any of them, McKay couldn't possibly give him the reassurances he needed to convince him it was worthwhile.

'It's 100 percent safe, Sheppard,' Rodney squawked, his eyes brilliant blue against his ruddy complexion. 'How many times do I have to tell you that?'

'Funny, I seem to remember you once saying you couldn't give me a one hundred percent guarantee on anything,' Sheppard drawled, his relaxed slouch and calm demeanour belying the turmoil currently broiling in his stomach.

Rodney glared as he tried to recall that, his face slackening as he did. 'Yes...well...that's true. So, I'm 99.99 percent recurring certain I'm right. Just like I was then.'

'But you don't know for sure?' Sheppard clarified, slumping further down in the seat, trying to give their banter its usual humour. 'You could be wrong.'

Rodney rolled his eyes, gripping the arms of his seat so hard his knuckles blanched. 'I've run the simulations hundreds of times now. Four hundred to be precise. Sam Carter and I have been working on this separately and exchanging theories for two whole years. The margin for error is minute.'

'But you don't know,' Sheppard emphasised, staring the man into submission.

A kind of strangulated scream issued from the scientist, and he slapped a hand to his forehead. 'Yes...all right. If it makes you feel better to hear it, I can't be one hundred percent certain it's entirely safe to operate, no. But, as I said, in my opinion the margin of error is infinitesimally small.'

'Thank you,' Sheppard smirked, having finally dragged the truth from him.

Richard Woolsey sat impassively behind his desk, elbows resting on its surface, fingers knitted together, listening to their argument without comment. Sheppard cast him a victorious smile, but Woolsey looked unconcerned by the news. That wasn't the reaction Sheppard had been hoping for. He'd expected to see some support there in the man's rigid features, some flicker of doubt in his eyes , but no. He still wore the same expression he almost always wore. Stony...maybe with a hint of constipation.

'You say you've run the simulations four hundred times?' Woolsey repeated, fixing his gaze on McKay.

'Well, between us we have, yes,' McKay nodded.

'That's yourself and Colonel Carter?'

'Yes,' Rodney hissed with another eye-roll. 'Who else? I'm hardly gonna ask Ronon to run them. And can I just say that I find having to justify testing what is so obviously an incredible breakthrough in Stargate technology this way totally and astonishingly ridiculous.'

'It's potentially dangerous, Rodney. That's why you need to justify it,' Sheppard growled, his hackles rising at the scientist's casual disregard for his concerns.

'Yes, yes, we've all heard your worries, Colonel Cautious,' Rodney sniped, giving a dismissive flap of his hand. 'Now let's deal with the reality. This is me we're talking about, not some fly by night Ancient scientist throwing together crazy half-notions, and untested theories. Here, on Atlantis, we have the power levels critical to maintain a stable wormhole. We just have to wire the technology into our power supply to test it.'

'And what if we can't shut it off again?' Sheppard asked. 'That thing created chaos on Guedeseo for centuries. We might not be able to use our Stargate for days or weeks until you figure something out. We could end up with teams stranded off-world and in danger.'

'Hello,' McKay sneered. 'Like I said, I'm in charge of the project, now. Janus may not have known what he was messing with, but with the modifications I've made, I'm absolutely certain I can shut it down.'

'One hundred percent certain, or just ninety-nine point nine recurring?' Sheppard asked, setting Rodney off again.

'What is it with you and superfluous numbers?' he demanded. 'It's always, 'How long?' and 'How many?' or 'How much?'. Can we get past this bit already?'

'I like to know what I'm up against, that's all.'

'We all know what you're thinking, but she's not gonna come spitting back out of the 'gate if we switch it on!' Rodney ranted.

The room fell completely silent.

Sheppard glowered at the scientist, hardly able to believe he'd said that. Rodney sank lower into his own chair now, his red cheeks turning pale. 'Well, someone had to say it,' he squeaked, eyes darting between Sheppard and Woolsey.

Woolsey leaned back in his seat and regarded them both for a moment before speaking. 'Dr McKay, would you give Colonel Sheppard and myself a few minutes alone to discuss your proposal, please?'

'Uh...sure,' Rodney replied, hesitating a little before pushing up out of his seat and shuffling from the office.

'That's not the only reason I'm against this project,' Sheppard said ruefully, straightening up a little now he was alone in the boss's company. Woolsey had a manner about him that made Sheppard feel like he should make more of an effort. He sometimes thought if he ever looked up the definition of 'stuffed-shirt' it would simply show a picture of Woolsey. Despite that fact, he'd learned to respect the man, a feeling he hoped was mutual. Richard had, after all, managed to negotiate the return of Atlantis to the Pegasus Galaxy when so many other people, namely members of the IOA, had wanted it to remain on Earth in case more Wraith attacked. And there were times when even he would bend the rules to gain a win, something every commander of Atlantis had quickly learned was an essential skill, no matter what their previous ideas had been.

'You have to admit that if we could get this experimental Stargate working, it could provide untold benefits to the Stargate programme, opening up previous unexplored worlds to us...and who knows what technologies.'

'And enemies,' Sheppard pointed out. 'At least with most of the planets we currently visit, we know they were safe enough for the Ancients to want to put a 'gate there.'

'Or rather they were over 10,000 years ago,' Woolsey corrected. 'A lot can and most likely has changed in that time, Colonel. Every trip through the 'gate is laden with risk. That doesn't stop you going through it.'

'That's generally because I know the Stargate works. That experimental 'gate Janus created is so far beyond us I'm not sure we should really be thinking of opening it up here in the city.'

Woolsey tapped the screen of his data pad, scrolling through the information on the proposal McKay had submitted to him. 'Dr McKay assures me he will be adhering to the strictest safety protocols and there is no apparent risk to the city itself from operating the experimental 'gate. And according to the simulations both he and Colonel Carter have run –'

'With all due respect, I don't care what those simulations say, Mr Woolsey,' Sheppard growled, interrupting him mid-sentence. 'I've seen Rodney's calculations go wrong before, and even though he and Colonel Carter have the combined IQ of the rest of the population of this city, I happen to know they've had to use a lot of speculation in getting this 'gate to a point where it can work again. They only saved part of Janus' database, and although they're smart enough to figure some of this stuff out with the information they possess, they can't know for sure they have things exactly right. Only a live test will prove that.'

Woolsey nodded, leaning back in his seat again. 'So this really isn't about this Medulsan woman Dr McKay mentioned, Colonel?'

Sheppard chewed his lip and considered lying, but it was pointless. His hatred of Sarayah was now legendary, as was the way he'd taken her out. Denying it would be more obvious than not. 'Well, I'll admit the thought of having her loose in the Pegasus Galaxy again doesn't exactly give me the warm and fuzzies, but no, that's not my main concern.'

Woolsey watched him silently, and Sheppard confidently held his gaze in the hope he wouldn't see through his bluff. Right here, right now, setting her free was his main concern, but the thought of the havoc a rampant Stargate could wreak in their city was undoubtedly right up there with it on the 'things you really don't want to happen' scale.

Slowly, Woolsey nodded. 'Okay. I take your concerns on board. Even though Dr McKay assures me he can create a safe and controlled environment here in Atlantis, I'm going to ask him to select another world, an uninhabited one, and I'm also going to ask him to delay the experiment for a week until we can have the Daedalus on standby to beam he and whoever goes with him from that planet should the experimental 'gate take precedence again.'

Sheppard lifted his chin and gave him a tight smile. 'Sounds like a plan.'

'As for anyone spilling out of the 'gate. My understanding is that only whole components can pass through a wormhole, and the longest time anything can be stored in a 'gate's memory buffers is forty-eight hours, so that really doesn't seem likely, does it?'

Sheppard resisted the urge to repeat the mantra "experimental Stargate" and just shrugged his shoulders. 'No...but I find it pays to never say never.'

Woolsey was obviously taking this all very seriously, but in his heart, Sheppard knew he would give McKay the go-ahead to bring the experimental gate back on-line. How could he not? All the scientists were raving about what a fantastic break-through in Stargate physics it was, which he knew was true, and there were numerous possible applications Rodney had been gibbering about over breakfast for the past few months that he'd only half-listened to because he'd been trying to convince himself that they just weren't clever enough to figure out how to get it up and running. But now they could because Sam Carter had devised a portable naquadriah generator powerful enough to generate and maintain a wormhole for approximately one minute, taking the regular use of the experimental 'gate one step closer to reality, though not in the fully mobile way Janus had intended just yet.

Sheppard thought it sounded more like a nightmare than a breakthrough, but had kept that particular view to himself, calmly pointing out the potential dangers to the city rather than the other risks that were actually screaming at him to be recognised. What if she was still in that 'gate? What if she got through and hunted him down again? What if she was even more 'in your face' crazy than she ever had been? He'd taken her hand, after all. Not for the first time, in fact, more than likely for the thousandth time, he wished he'd shot her when he'd first had the opportunity out in the deserts when they'd run from the Atrascan troops she was leading, but no...he'd come over all chivalrous and left her a fighting chance of survival because he didn't like killing people who he thought posed a threat to him alone. Well, that hadn't been the case, and his compassion had almost cost his team their lives, not to mention all the people – Atrascans, Medulsans and the inhabitants of Guedeseo alike – who had fallen during her desperate attempts to bend him to her will.

'Colonel?'

Woolsey had been talking to him and he'd been so lost in thought he hadn't heard a word of it. That woman, even while supposedly dead, remained the only person who could distract him to that degree.

'I'm sorry...what?' he asked.

Woolsey sighed, rising from his seat to approach Sheppard and sit down beside him. 'John,' he said, immediately alarming Sheppard because the man rarely used his first name. 'I've read the mission reports regarding Sarayah. I understand how...unnerving that woman is, and –'

'No...no you don't,' Sheppard snapped. Then he stopped himself. He was allowing his emotions to rule his head, another thing only she could make him do. This wasn't like him...this was the John Sheppard he was reduced to whenever she entered his life.

Richard held him pinned with that same emotionless stare, reading him, leaving him squirming in his seat. 'All right, I accept that wasn't the best choice of words. Perhaps empathise would have been better,' he conceded. 'But my understanding is that by any known physics, this woman has zero chance of rematerialising if the 'gate is operated. And even if somehow she did, she was badly injured when she fell into the event horizon...possibly dying I believe your report stated. The chances are she would die before she could do anyone any harm.'

That was true, but since her propensity for survival rivalled the Terminator bots, Sheppard didn't feel particularly comforted. No, it was easier to focus on the science. If this was going to happen, then he would cling to the fact that the laws of Stargate physics said she was a lost cause. Her atoms had now been lost in some subspace channel that had disappeared scattering her atoms far and wide throughout the Pegasus Galaxy. So everywhere he went a part of her could be near him...he shuddered and shook that thought away. It really wasn't helping.

'I'm going to recommend that your team scouts out an appropriate planet for the test to take place, but I think it is important to try this, John. I hope you understand.'

'I do...Richard,' he replied, almost tripping over the name he found so unfamiliar to say. 'And I guess if we're going to move this off-world, I really don't have a problem with it.'

'Good, then it's settled.'

Sheppard watched him push up from his seat with a satisfied smile, the most his expression had changed for the entire meeting. Feeling like he'd just signed his soul away, his own rise and departure was rather more laboured, his heart heavy and dragging him down to levels of misery he thought he'd left behind long ago.

oooOOOooo

Two weeks later, Sheppard, Rodney, Ronon and Teyla were beamed down amidst the craggy landscape of PG4 982 along with a naquadria generator and the equipment salvaged from Janus' lab on Guedeseo. McKay immediately got to work calibrating the equipment, while Sheppard, Teyla and Ronon set up a perimeter. The planet was uninhabited by humans, though it did have some indigenous life forms that had shown up on the MALP scans, but nothing that looked either large or obviously dangerous. Still, it paid to be cautious. The Pegasus Galaxy was nothing if not full of surprises.

It was raining, and in only a few minutes Sheppard's uniform was saturated and clung to his form like a second skin, Teyla's hair lay plastered against her forehead, and huge drops of rain fell from Ronon's dreadlocks reminding Sheppard of a mop a janitor had forgotten to wring out. McKay sat hunched over various pieces of Ancient equipment, collar up as he beavered away, rain dripping from his nose and chin as he blinked furiously to focus on the job. Sheppard was just thinking how excited about the project Rodney must be to not be complaining about the weather when McKay reverted to form.

'Why the hell you had to insist on us coming all the way out here when I could set up a perfectly controlled environment in one of the disused wings of the city, I'll never understand,' the scientist muttered as he started connecting the generator to Janus' machine. 'We could have been warm and dry instead of sinking in mud and freezing our ears off.'

'Our ears?' Sheppard peered back over his shoulder at him.

'Lady present,' McKay replied, dipping his head in Teyla's direction.

'Right.'

Sheppard scoured the tree-line surrounding their position, scanning around with his LSD. For the moment, they hadn't attracted any unwanted attention. That was a promising start, but he knew it could take McKay a full half hour to get the equipment to generate the experimental 'gate up and running, so they couldn't relax just yet.

The rain felt like it was actually sinking through to his bones now, which made the experience all the more uncomfortable, that and McKay's perpetual whining about how he would probably come down with pneumonia all because of Sheppard's paranoia. Sheppard did his utmost to ignore him, rolling his eyes and checking for life signs again rather than rising to the bait.

'It is my understanding that this Stargate project is very advanced,' Teyla piped up, wandering over McKay's way, P-90 clutched firmly in her right hand.

'Well, yes, of course it is. Sam and I were the only ones smart enough to even come close to getting our heads around the physics involved –'

'And did you not have to fill in many gaps in the information you salvaged from Janus' records yourselves?'

'Well, yes,' he huffed, 'but it wasn't as much a game of chance as you make it sound. It's not as if we sat around sticking pins into pages of quantum physics to see what theory we hit!'

'But since so much of what you and Colonel Carter have calculated is so far untried, would you not admit it is wise to test it away from the city in an environment where we will not endanger human life?'

'Except our own,' Ronon muttered, throwing McKay a death glare. Ronon was almost as mad about this project as Sheppard himself, and had told McKay that a number of times in the past two weeks. Not that McKay had paid him any heed.

'For the thousandth time, we are not in any danger! All the simulations have shown the test will be a complete success. We should be able to keep a 'gate open for a minute at least. Plenty enough time for something to pass through it. And by something, I don't mean any hissing, spitting, psychotic Medulsans.'

Sheppard hunched against the cold and took a few steps further away from McKay before he said something he might regret, a dot suddenly showing up on his LSD.

'Look sharp. Something's heading our way.' He signalled the direction, and Ronon prepped his weapon, as did Teyla as she edged back over to them.

They watched the ground, waiting for something to break out of the underbrush, but in the end it took them by surprise, swooping down from the trees and landing on the ground in front of them. It looked like a freakish cross between a bat and a cat, the dimensions of a fair-sized domestic feline, but with leathery wings spanning between its body and its clawed forelimbs. It stood on all fours, staring at them with intelligent orange eyes, tilting its head as if trying to fathom out what they were.

The trio froze, watching it, gauging it.

'Huh, it reminds me of my cat,' Rodney chirped from behind them. 'It used to tilt its head in exactly the same way.'

'What's it doing?' Sheppard hissed to him. 'You being our resident feline expert.'

'Er...not sure. It could mean one of several things. It could be curious, or uncertain –'

The bat cat suddenly leapt forward at ferocious speed, flooring Sheppard and hissing in his face before he could get off a shot. Ronon blasted it off him, but not before it had taken a good swipe at his neck.

'Or it could mean it's pissed. My cat used to do that, too.'

'Thanks for the insight!' Sheppard croaked, getting up and dabbing at his bleeding neck. 'A little more of a heads up would've been good.'

'What am I...the Cat Whisperer?' Rodney shrugged, getting on with the connections.

Sheppard cast him a shrivelling look that was completely wasted on him because he already had his head buried in Janus' machine.

'How long's that gonna take?' he shouted, just to annoy him.

'Again with the meaningless numbers!' Rodney yelled back. 'I dunno...how about eight weeks?'

'We're gonna need more food,' Sheppard called back, making Teyla smile.

'Wonder what this thing tastes like, Ronon rumbled, nudging the bat cat with the toe of his muddy boot.

'Chicken, I guess. Most things do,' Sheppard mused, leaning over it and curling his lip at the smouldering corpse. 'And it's already cooked...nice, but it won't keep us going for eight weeks.'

'Yes, ha-ha, I get it, you'd like me to hurry up,' Rodney grumbled from the depths of an echoey chamber inside the device.

'Well, considering you're the one moaning about catching pneumonia, that would be good,' Sheppard pointed out, scanning around them again. This time, the LSD showed no sign of anything alive in their vicinity. Hopefully it would stay that way until they could complete the experiment and move on.

Some twenty minutes later, McKay finally got back to his feet. 'So, Sheppard, I figure you owe me an apology when this thing works with no problems, don't you?' the scientist quipped, firing up the machine. It glowed into life, and Sheppard felt a tingle as it connected with him at some level.

'Let's not count those chickens just yet, huh?' he replied, wandering over toward the control panels. Data scrolled down some of the screens, all in Ancient, a language Sheppard simply hadn't had the time to learn in any great detail. 'So what's all this stuff say?'

'It's a diagnostic...you know, like when you cut power to a computer before shutting it down and it suggests you scan disks for a fault.'

'Cool...so what does it actually say?'

McKay rolled his eyes. 'Well, funnily enough, I don't have time to translate it verbatim, but it's basically repairing any faulty files after the explosion cut them off.'

Sheppard found himself hoping it couldn't fix all the files, then mentally reprimanded himself for being so negative. This project meant a lot to McKay...to a lot of people, in fact. He really had to try to be more supportive.

'Well, let's get this thing running and see what it can do,' he replied. It was the most enthusiastic response he could muster.

Rodney continued to speed read data while Sheppard strolled away to where Teyla and Ronon stood. The look the Athosian gave him as he approached could only be described as sympathetic. Was his anxiety really that obvious?

'I am certain everything will be fine,' she told him. 'And the experimental Stargate, if it can be stabilised, would prove most useful in expanding our exploration of the galaxy.'

'So we can get out there and piss off entirely new enemies,' Ronon smirked, twirling his gun as he scoped the tree line again.

Sheppard checked the LSD. They were still alone, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen. Haunted...that was how that damned woman had left him. There was no other word for it. And the thought of someday meeting someone else just as crazy out there made him feel sick to the pit of his stomach. He'd deal with them, just as he'd dealt with her, but the experience had scarred deep into his psyche, leaving him checking over his shoulder more than he would ever dare admit.

'Ain't that the truth?' he breathed, managing a flicker of a smile before the effort became too much.

'Okay. The diagnostic's finished. We're good to go!' Rodney announced cheerfully, his face split by the biggest smile Sheppard had seen him wear for a long time, especially considering his sodden state.

This was the kind of thing Rodney lived for, and Sheppard felt guilty for not sharing his joy. But the stuff Rodney dealt with, whether it was the experimental 'gate or not, generally went way beyond his level of understanding, and he found that scary as all hell. He liked to be in possession of all the information when facing any given situation; the Pegasus Galaxy rarely furnished him with anything near that.

'Okay, where's the package?' the scientist demanded, repeatedly clicking his fingers and jabbing his finger in the direction of a parcel sitting behind the rest of the team.

Before leaving Atlantis, Rodney had parcelled up some MREs and popped a transmitter in with them as something to send through the 'gate if or when he managed to fire it up. Then, they planned to gate to their destination the conventional way to check it had arrived in one piece, where they could track it down and have their lunch before heading home. The food parcel had, of course, been McKay's idea. Exciting as all this theoretical 'gate physics was, he still found time to think of his stomach.

Ronon picked it up and carried it over to him. 'Here. Catch.'

He tossed it to McKay, taking him by surprise so he barely had time to catch it. 'Thank you, Conan. Thankfully it's not full of volatile explosives!'

'Yes, because that would be so much more dangerous than toying around with theoretical 'gate physics,' Sheppard snorted, giving him a wry smile.

'Honestly, you are so paranoid, Sheppard. I know exactly what I'm doing and when I prove that, you're gonna be grovelling around me begging me to let you have a go.'

Sheppard just shook his head and bit his tongue, Rodney's arrogance grating on his already frayed nerves. McKay was a good friend, and a damned good scientist, but there were times Sheppard could happily hand him his head.

The machine flashed into life without Rodney's input, and he instantly dropped the package, frantically scouring the data stream and trying to figure out what was going on. 'Nonononono. That's not supposed to be happening yet!'

Sheppard got a sinking feeling and jogged over to join him. 'So turn it off.'

'I can't. It thinks it's following a command. Must be something residual.'

Just then, to add to the fun, Colonel Caldwell's voice broke through on their communicators. 'Dr McKay, we're picking up unusual solar activity readings. Is this anything to do with your experiment?'

'No! Of course it isn't! No 'gate can affect the su –'

His face dropped.

Sheppard saw his brain begin kicking into overdrive, no doubt figuring out some kind of mathematical equations he could only dream of understanding. This was one of the few things that scared the crap out of him...when McKay knew something he didn't and looked that scared.

'McKay?'

'I suppose this part may have been in the data we lost,' he whimpered. 'Janus was keen on time travel, after all, and the original 'gate was designed to draw power from the environment. Perhaps he designed some kind of solar interface.'

'I recommend you shut down the experiment until you can be certain of what's happening, Doctor,' they heard Caldwell say, more of a command than a suggestion.

'Yeah...I would if I could figure out...'McKay looked at Sheppard, realisation dawning on him. 'It's you.'

Sheppard frowned back at him, wondering if the man had lost his mind. 'Yeeaaahhh...I know it's me.'

McKay rolled his eyes in that face-slappingly irritating way he did when thinking everyone else was a complete idiot. 'I mean you're powering up the 'gate. You and your supergene have triggered it off. It's connected with you.'

'But I didn't ask it to do anything,' Sheppard protested, backing off a few steps.

'Well you must have! Just shut it down!'

'How?'

'Think it off – it's a thought powered 'gate, remember? And do it now. This thing's naquadriah-powered, if it blows you have no idea how powerful an explosion it could unleash.'

'Could it destroy five sixths of a solar system,' Sheppard growled, annoyed that McKay had laid the blame squarely on his shoulders when he'd said it was a bad idea from the start.

'Really? You're gonna bring that up now?' McKay shrieked, his eyes bright with panic.

Sheppard let it slid, chewing his lip and concentrating on the instruction.

'Dr McKay, we have more solar activity. There are flares now – I need to raise the Daedalus' shields.'

'Do it!' McKay shouted, his voice thick with panic. 'Sheppard!'

The experimental gate fired into life, the event horizon so close and dazzlingly bright they were forced to shield their eyes. It was stable all right, and incredibly powerful.

'It's not responding! Cut the power!' Sheppard yelled at him, both McKay and Ronon springing into action.

But before they could reach the generator it began to spark, the hot embers showering out and forcing them back, sending McKay diving for cover in the cloying mud. A few moments later the power died and the 'gate disconnected, leaving them in stark silence.

Sheppard ran over to McKay, worried the scientist had been hurt. When he rested his hand in his back, McKay twitched and lifted his muddy face. 'Is it over?'

'Yeah, it shut down,' he told him, tapping his earpiece. 'Daedalus, this is Sheppard. The 'gate suffered some kind of power overload and shut down. What's your status?'

'Shields are holding and the solar activity appears to have died down. I take it the experiment is over for today?'

'That's affirmative. If you give us a few minutes to collect our data, we'd appreciate a lift home.'

'Copy that. We'll await your call.'

McKay dragged his sorry looking carcass out of the mud and staggered to his feet. 'Aw, would you look at that! The generator's completely fried!'

'At least it didn't blow up,' Ronon pointed out, but his cheeriness did little to perk up McKay's spirits.

'Do you have any idea how much these things cost?' he sputtered, eyes bulging as he glared at the Satedan.

Ronon just shrugged. 'No.'

'That was a rhetorical question!'

'Still, at least we are all unharmed. That has to count for something,' Teyla said calmly, trying to soothe his mounting temper.

'Yes, at least there's that,' Sheppard stressed, joining him at the control panels. Several lights had died, and smoke curled out from under some of the panels. The thing was toast. 'What went wrong?'

'Oh, you mean apart from you firing it up when I wasn't ready?' McKay charged, clearly furious that so much of his time had amounted to such a disastrous result.

'We can play the blame game later,' Sheppard stated, keeping his voice even so he didn't fire McKay up even more. 'This could have happened whoever operated it.'

McKay sighed, his shoulders slumping as he leaned over the laptop he'd remotely interfaced with Janus' machine. 'Just gimme a minute to check the data.'

He scrolled down, doing his usual freakish job of speed-reading that no one else could compete with. 'Oh, waitwaitwaitwait. That can't be right.'

'What?' Sheppard demanded, the hairs on the back of his neck suddenly standing to rigid attention.

'It looks like the machine really did draw power from the sun to generate the wormhole...and the system reported that something completed a journey right before the generator overloaded.'

Sheppard felt his blood freeze in his veins. 'We didn't send anything through,' he pointed out.

'I know. I'm sure it's just an error...' McKay snapped, his voice trailing off as he continued to read.

'An error with the machine, or an error in your theory?' Sheppard asked, seeking clarification to assuage his rising fears.

'The first, I think,' McKay squeaked, not daring to raise his eyes from his screen.

'You think!'

'Look! There were things in the database we weren't able to retrieve, so I can't be entirely sure. And the 'gate was cut off while still operational the last time it was activated. I suppose there's a chance the forty-eight hour rule might not apply under these conditions considering the experimental nature of this machine. It could be that because the whole thing was disconnected the last information stored in the 'gate's buffers was held in stasis until it was fired up again.'

'But the last information stored wasn't complete,' Sheppard pointed out.

'No...and I suppose there's a chance that doesn't count with the experimental 'gate either. Maybe Janus designed it to send through whatever got through to save whatever lives he could. Let's face it, if the 'gate worked that way when stable, those personnel we lost on Guedeseo would have made it home alive.'

'But it's not going to be them going through, is it?' Sheppard asked, his face flushing with colour as the realisation of what this meant truly struck him. 'We know it activated several times after their data was stored, erasing them from the buffers. So that means the 'gate must have completed the last instruction from our time on Guedeseo, right?'

Rodney swallowed audibly and shrugged, raking a hand back through his receding hair. 'Hard to say. The 'gate was drawing extra energy, which suggests it was sending the wormhole somewhere other than this galaxy. And it's possible for wormholes to jump from one destination to another if they experience a sudden surge in power. Plus solar flares can make them jump through time, too.'

'Yeah, I know all that, Rodney,' Sheppard grimaced, painfully reminded of his trip to Atlantis when he'd been fired 48,000 years into the future.

'Yes, yes, of course you do. But maybe we can figure this out. What were you thinking when it fired up? You must have been thinking of somewhere for it to make a connection.'

'You wanna know what I was thinking? I was thinking 'Go to hell!' because you were pissing me off.'

McKay blinked back at him, then snorted out a laugh. 'Well, I'm pretty sure hell doesn't exist, so it's not gonna take her there, more's the pity.'

'So what you're saying is she could be anytime, anywhere?'

'Effectively...yes. But let's face it, from what you said, she was dying anyway, and now she's missing a hand. Wherever that 'gate throws her out, unless she gets immediate medical attention, she's not going to be a threat to anyone.'

That really didn't make Sheppard feel any more confident, and then to add to that, a moment of memory struck Sheppard. Maybe McKay didn't think hell existed, but he knew it did. There was a time and a place in his past when he'd thought he'd found that very place. Surely he hadn't sent Sarayah back there?