The Ninth Chevron Chapter 1: That's a lot of issues McKay, a stargate: atlantis fanfic

The Ninth Chevron

Author: ShaViva

Rating: K+

Content Warning: some minor violence is pretty much it

Season: could be any time really but with Elizabeth and Carson still there I decided it was Season 3, after 'Echoes' but before 'Tao of Rodney'

Summary: "I'm still investigating but the sheer number and spread of these problems is pointing to something seriously wrong with the city," Rodney reported grimly. Team Sheppard must travel further than ever before in their efforts to save Atlantis.

Classifications: It's an adventure/action story focussed on the team, team friendship etc.

Pairings: None

Spoilers for: Minor spoilers for season 2 'The Tower'; very minor spoilers for season 3 'Echoes'; very minor 'history of the Ori' spoilers – nothing I could link to a specific SG1 episode though.

Disclaimer: The Stargate characters, storylines, etc aren't mine – I'm just playing with them for my own, and hopefully your enjoyment. I am unfortunately not associated in any way with the creators, owners, or producers of Stargate or any of its media franchises. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, equipment, etc are the property of whoever owns them. Any original characters, plot, settings, and anything else I made up are the property of me, the author. No copyright infringement is intended.

Authors Note:

I came up with this idea after reading that the third Stargate TV series was going to have something to do with the ninth chevron ... this is how I imagine a new series could start, except with the Atlantis cast instead of a new one :D. I haven't read any ninth chevron stuff before so apologies if this has already been done.

This story has no connection to either my Sabina series or my Sheplantis series ... I'm using a couple of what might seem like similar plot tools though. If you've read those other stories then close your eyes ... concentrate ... and wipe your mind of everything that went on there ... ready? Okay, let's get on with the story!

Chapter 1: That's a lot of issues McKay

"Crap!" Lt Colonel John Sheppard jumped back from his door with a curse. Shaking the hand that was now numb from the electric shock he'd just received he tapped his radio earpiece.

"McKay," he almost growled. "I just got another shock from my door controls - I thought you fixed that!"

"I did," Rodney protested.

"No you didn't," Sheppard insisted. "Get down here and have another look."

"I'm not your local electrician," Rodney said sarcastically. "I'll put your ... request on the maintenance schedule. We'll get to you as soon as we've fixed the fifty other minor problems already on the list."

"And what am I supposed to do in the meantime?" Sheppard demanded.

"Stay out of your room," Rodney said unhelpfully, closing off the channel before Sheppard could say anything else.

Grumbling under his breath about arrogant scientists Sheppard took the risk and swiped his hand over the door controls again, relaxing the muscles he'd tensed in preparation of the shock when the door opened smoothly.

"Doctor McKay?" Teyla approached Rodney with an expression that was frankly a little scary. Rodney, distracted with the latest problem requiring a solution, didn't notice.

"Not now," he glanced up quickly before looking down at his data pad again.

"Yes now," Teyla insisted. "This is the third morning in a row where I have been unable to complete my morning shower without being almost scalded by suddenly hot water. I have twice reported this issue but nothing has been done."

"I sent someone down there to look at that," Rodney explained impatiently. "They should have fixed it."

"They did not," Teyla said sternly. "I would appreciate it if you could attend to this matter personally."

Rodney opened his mouth to protest the multitude of other similar requests he already had backlogged but the look in Teyla's eyes stopped him before any words could get out. "Fine," he agreed grumpily. "I'll get to it as soon as I can ... in the mean time I suggest you use a different shower."

"Thank you Rodney," Teyla smiled graciously before turning and walking away.

Door controls and showers ... was that what his brilliant scientific career had been reduced to? Rodney shook his head glumly before turning back to his data pad.

"Doctor McKay, can you come down to the hologram room please?" Doctor Weir's tone was reasonable but Rodney found himself thinking 'what now?'. It had been a very busy week and he was tired and grumpy, even by his standards.

"Have we made any changes to the holographic system lately?" Doctor Weir asked when he arrived.

"No," Rodney denied with a frown. "Why? What happened?"

"Look - it might be nothing," Elizabeth admitted. "I was following up on some information Doctor Jackson requested and the system gave me different information than the last time. When I queried the earlier answers there was no record that I'd even asked previously."

"That's not right," Rodney protested in a tone that almost suggested Elizabeth had gotten it wrong somehow. "The system is designed to keep an accurate record of all requests made from here." He stepped up on the dais and accessed the manual controls ... a moment later the holographic Morgan Le Fay appeared.

"Hello," the hologram said regally. "You may enter your query verbally or by entering it manually on the console before you."

"Please display a record of Doctor Weir's usage of your system over the past month," Rodney requested.

Lines of information appeared on the 'in air' display. Looking to Elizabeth, Rodney asked "is that right ... is anything missing?"

Elizabeth looked carefully at each record, frowning by the time she got to the end of the list. "There are at least another two visits I can recall that aren't on that list."

"When were they?" Rodney queried, listening carefully and then requesting a record of system status during those specific times.

"This system was inactive during that period," the hologram replied imperiously to each.

"Okay, there's some kind of memory access issue here," Rodney muttered, stepping down from the dais. Ripping his laptop off his back he proceeded to plug in and access the system directly. Glancing up at Elizabeth he advised "Don't hang around - this could take a while."

Doctor Weir watched for a few moments as Rodney started accessing the system records for the hologram program. Frowning worriedly she turned and left him to his work.

"We have a problem," Rodney walked into the conference room where everyone else was already waiting for him. Calling up a schematic of the city he punched a few buttons that resulted in an alarming number of red crosses appearing spread throughout the entire occupied part of Atlantis. "This is a record of the locations of all the minor issues we've had lately."

"That's a lot of issues McKay," Sheppard pointed out.

"More than can be explained by any kind of random situation," Rodney agreed. "I'm still investigating but the sheer number and spread of these problems is pointing to something seriously wrong with the city."

"What could possibly be causing all all of them?" Doctor Weir demanded in concern.

"If I knew that I'd be down there fixing it instead of up here telling you about it," Rodney said sarcastically. "I've got all my people on this ... as soon as we've isolated the cause I'll let you know. In the mean time I suggest you inform everyone to be very careful ... we haven't had any serious injuries yet but if this continues it's only a matter of time."

"I'll do a city wide announcement," Weir acknowledged the seriousness of the problem. "Is there anything we can do to offer some protection from the worst of the problems?"

"Not really," Rodney admitted. "The spread is just too wide to allow any kind of prediction on where future incidents might occur."

"Then we need to get this resolved as soon as possible," Weir said with concern.

"I'm on it," Rodney confirmed, getting the nod from Elizabeth before turning to stride from the room.

"What's the status McKay?" Sheppard walked into the lab the next day for an update.

"I still don't know what the problem is but I've got a better handle on all the symptoms," Rodney replied, drawing John's attention to his laptop display. "I've done a breakdown of the various types of problems. You've had personal experience with the minor electrical shocks, but we've also had memory access issues, random reboots and trouble accessing some systems, a few small brownouts, even some hardware failures. The biggest concern right now is the decreased power efficiency coupled with an increase in the internal temperature within the power supply unit."

"What does that mean?" Sheppard asked impatiently.

"The Atlantis systems work like any Earth based system," Rodney explained. "The ZedPM is the power source but it doesn't power the systems directly. There's a PSU - a power supply unit - which is designed to convert the power from the ZedPM into usable low-voltage power for the internal components of all the systems."

"And something's wrong with this PSU?" Sheppard queried.

"To be honest I don't know," Rodney admitted. "The problem might be somewhere else and just be manifesting in symptoms within the PSU or the PSU itself could be the source of everything."

"How come we didn't notice this sooner?" Sheppard looked at Rodney expectantly.

"Because none of these problems by itself is a cause for concern," Rodney exclaimed. "Some were reported to me, some to Zelenka and some only came to light after we started investigating this. It was only when I started to collate them all that the bigger pattern started to emerge."

"Fair enough," John nodded in understanding. "How long until you can say for sure what the cause is?"

"There are a lot of systems to check ... and the PSU itself is difficult to access," Rodney admitted. "There's a danger of electric shock - power builds up inside the unit to the point that the capacitors can still be charged even if all power sources have been cut off."

"So how long?" Sheppard persisted.

"Always with you it's the meaningless time estimates isn't it?" Rodney complained. "We're not talking about changing the battery on your IPod Colonel ... it's a delicate operation and it'll take as long as it takes."

"Fine," Sheppard let the matter drop for the moment. "As soon as you've got something let me know."

Authors Note:

I thought I'd do like a preview chapter now ... and then start posting the rest of this story once I've finished my other story (Fortunate Journey S3). So the next chapter of this will be up in a couple of days.