~ Same Time, Same Place ~

An Author's Note follows this chapter.

Word Count, Chapter 1: 5234

Takes place when Woolsey is in charge.

Characters: Sheppard, Rodney, Teyla, Ronon, Lorne, Beckett, Keller.

Disclaimer: 'Stargate Atlantis' and its characters are not mine. I would not have left them under the aegis of those whose interest lay elsewhere.

SGA ~ SGA ~ SGA

"We could send a survey crew down here, Rodney," John Sheppard drawled as he and McKay walked along the West Pier. John turned his head into the breeze that reworked his hair into even more disorder. The smell of saltwater made him smile. He took off his aviators, closed his eyes, and faced the sun.

"Hah. How many years have we had teams mapping the city and who was it who determined there was some discrepancy?" Rodney walked in the lead, tapping keys on his tablet, a hand scanner precariously balanced in the crook of his arm.

"If we're looking for a mysterious room, why are we on the outside, instead of wandering the halls inside?"

Rodney huffed and never took his gaze off his equipment. "Because I only saw the discrepancy when I was working on the internal sensors and I don't know that we're actually looking for a room, just something that's somehow mapped incorrectly and no one has noticed it on the inside, so maybe it's outside."

"So, we're not looking for a room, exactly, just a..." John paused. "...discrepancy."

The Tone was enough for Rodney to stop walking and look back. "This is serious, Sheppard! There's something down here."

"I know it's serious, Rodney. If there's a discrepancy, we should know about it. I'm just trying to figure out why I'm here, since there are other things I could be doing..."

Rodney said nothing, he just bent over his equipment again. "I thought maybe you could..." He cleared his throat. "I thought maybe you'd be able to feel it...or something."

"Feel it or something," John repeated ominously.

Rodney studiously worked on his datapad. "I thought Atlantis might tell you..." When John didn't respond, Rodney looked up again to find the colonel glowering at him.

"I can't believe you and I are having this conversation again! Yes, I 'feel' Atlantis, especially when I'm in the Chair. Or a Jumper. Or around Ancient tech..." John's voice trailed off; McKay was looking at him smugly. John frowned. "If she could 'tell' me things, I'd ask her how to defeat the Wraith!" Rodney turned back to his tablet, dismissing John. "You don't even know what you're looking for! 'Discrepancy.' How am I supposed to find something if you don't have a clue what it is?!" John concluded impatiently, "Short of throwing a line over the edge and checking out her hull, I don't know what I can do."

Rodney firmed his lower lip, put on his mutinous face and exploded. "Fine! But we could be overlooking that very thing the Ancients developed to defeat the Wraith!"

"Then why is it hidden?" Rodney glared and went back to his equipment, so John sighed and slipped his aviators back on his nose. "If you do locate something that indicates a discrepancy, I'll come back to try and 'feel' something about the area. And if you don't look up now and then, you'll walk off the edge."

John strolled back along the pier, enjoying being out in the sun and open air. The city was awe inspiring, but he spent too much of his time within city walls. Granted, there was something soothing about the background hum Atlantis supplied, sort of a mental massage. He closed his eyes to 'feel'...

John slowed his steps. Something was different... A sense of...design. "Rodney...I think Atlantis is telling me something."

"Oh, har, Colonel."

"Rodney..."

"Go away. I'm busy."

SGA ~ SGA ~ SGA

How did one go about finding a room, which might not be a room, and which might not register correctly on sensors? John was on the third level beneath the pier, walking away from the city center toward the outskirts. He hadn't felt anything more on the first two levels than he had atop the pier and there'd been no blank wall behind which could be a hidden room. All space in those corridors was on the schematic. The third level, though, felt...different. Stronger. Or more with a sense of 'presence'...

John took each step slowly and paused to 'feel' the city's hum. Something was very near. He ran his hand along the surface of the wall and where the hum seemed strongest, he pushed. The panel opened easily into a room. "He was right," John murmured. "And I'll never hear the end of it," he added with chagrin.

The lights came on when he stepped over the threshold, then burned brighter when John mentally nudged up the intensity. To the left and right were row after row, on and on, of shelving in a narrow, very long room. The wall across from him was not three meters away, but the room possibly ran the length of the pier, the dimensions of the space disappearing in distant shadow. In front of him was a small open area with a table, chairs, pedestal and a picture frame on the wall. John could see gaps in the rows to the left and right, likely more open spaces at intervals, with more tables, chairs and pedestals. The shelves held slim volumes that reminded John of DVD cases. There was only a little dust.

John took a volume from a shelf. There was a graphic on the front with a bit of writing, and smaller text on the back. Like a book. Which would make the room a library, but they'd always assumed 'Everything There Is To Know' by the Ancients was contained in the Ancient database. John considered the volumes could be the pre-Database format of all Ancient information, perhaps millennia older than the Database. He tapped his earbud.

"McKay, you won't believe what I've found." John heard the scratchy blankness of an open line. "McKay...do you hear me?"

"Yes, I hear you. Are you doing the other things you told me you could be doing instead of helping me?"

"I've found your discrepancy," John drawled. "A library."

"...Did you say 'library'?"

"Yeah. And you won't believe what I'm seeing."

"What! How do you know it's a library? How did you find it? Why didn't you tell me what you were doing?" Only McKay could sound offended while excited. "You're serious? It's really a library? How do you know?" The original irritated huffing increased and John knew Rodney was walking at a fast clip, but it was a long way from the end of the pier in to an access tower, and then a long way back out to John's location.

"Come see for yourself. Third level down, two-thirds along." John murmured vaguely, "I wonder if they have westerns..."

Rodney choked. "I can't see them wasting time on horse operas. In fact, I can't see them wasting time at all."

"Yeah, but they must've been kids once. I think." John continued to walk among free-standing bookcases, sliding random volumes from the shelves, blowing off the dust.

"Maybe it's someone's private collection," Rodney wheezed.

"I'm thinkin' more 'All Ancient Knowledge', pre-Database. Obsolete, so they shoved it in boxes under the stairs. It's huge, but in this format maybe we can find a volume about a specific subject. 'ZPM Manufacture' in the How-To section."

"Jumper Repair, Wormhole Mechanics. The list is endless." The static cleared and John knew Rodney had stepped inside when he heard the clatter and echo of an access stairwell.

"I think I'm in the Fauna section. Lotsa critters." John slid out another volume to look at the cover. "Cute little guys. Like tribbles. Maybe something Torren would like." He walked over to a pedestal. Its shape reminded him of a shorter parking meter with a thicker stem. He took note of the slot on top. "The book-things look like solid DVD cases ~ just a slab that doesn't open. I think they're inserted into these pedestals."

"You probably shouldn't touch anything until we've thoroughly investigated the whole library."

"I'm just looking, Rodney." John slid another book from a shelf and blew off the dust to examine the cover. He put it back and stepped around the bookcase. "Cool!"

"What? What is it?" Rodney was out of breath.

"There are movies playing on the wall!"

The large space was open and airy, with an intricate circular pattern in the flooring. The movie frames were carved in detail like the shelves. The pedestal was bigger than those at intervals among the shelves and there were no tables or chairs. The pedestal and ambient light brightened as John moved into the area.

"Entertainment? Seriously? 'Ancient Night at the Movies'?"

"More like 'Variety Night on The Travel Channel'."

The wall held three frames, each showing a different landscape ~ thick woods, like a pine forest, under ice and falling snow; distant cliffs behind repeating windswept sand dunes, like those he and Ford had seen when they first explored Lantea's mainland; lush jungle-like greenery, a sure habitat for critters.

"Travel? Like different planets?" Rodney asked, intrigued.

"Could be, although one place looks like Afghanistan." John moved toward the wall to get a closer look. The pedestal pulsed and a bright light suddenly engulfed him as he crossed the floor.

"Sheppard... What's going on? ...Sheppard?"

John couldn't move, couldn't speak. He could hear Rodney talking, but the words were drowned out by the rushing in his own ears. The buzz of electricity ran over his skin. Pain screamed through his fingertips and echoed into black.

SGA ~ SGA ~ SGA

"Sheppard! Sheppard!" Rodney started to run down the stairs. "Medical! Jennifer! Get down here! Sheppard's hurt!" He re-keyed his radio. "Control Room! Send Teyla, Ronon and Major Lorne to the third level below the West Pier! Sheppard's down!"

Rodney's breath came in gasps as he hurried along the corridor. If the room didn't show on the sensors, could he find it? It had to be closer to the end of the pier ~ Sheppard had said Atlantis was talking to him and that was...where? "Two-thirds along," he whispered, half-jogging and staring at the scanner.

The door was open. Rodney dropped his jacket on the floor to mark the way for those to follow and stepped inside. As Sheppard had said, it was unbelievable. Stunning. Rows and rows of answers to so many questions. A library. If the catalog system was easier to peruse than the hugely redundant Database, they'd have it all. Rodney turned at the sound of running feet.

"Where's the colonel?" Lorne was only slightly winded as he barged in the door and looked around.

Rodney was about to answer when Teyla and Ronon entered behind the major. "I just got here and I don't know where he is. He said he was in a room with movies on the wall."

"We need to split up," Lorne commented.

Jennifer arrived, out of breath, with a kit. "Where is he?"

"We have not found him yet," Teyla spoke quickly. "Ronon, you go with Rodney and Jennifer. Major Lorne and I will search this side." She strode away and Lorne hastened after her.

Rodney worriedly caught Jennifer's eye, then they followed Ronon quickly along the wall, looking between the bookcases as they passed each aisle. Rodney bumped into Ronon because the big man stopped abruptly. When he came to stand at Ronon's side, Rodney could only stare. Almost in a trance, he tapped his earbud. "Teyla, we found him." Some part of him noticed that no one had moved, so when Teyla and Lorne arrived, they were lined up just inside the entryway.

The largest, middle frame covered half the wall, floor to ceiling, and showed Sheppard, lying on his back, dead still in the merciless heat of a desert. The sun blazed white and light winds drifted sand across him. The three-dimensional image protruded into the room, circumscribed by the floor's centered pattern.

"Do you think we could just pull him out?" Lorne asked.

"I don't think he's really here," Rodney said in a terrible voice, "but you could try." He tapped keys on the scanner. "Be careful! There's a barrier, between us and him, wherever he is."

Lorne looked at Ronon. The two men stepped carefully up to the 3D-image and both reached for the fallen man on the floor. The result was dramatic ~ blue light arced and cracked and Lorne yanked his hand back as soon as he penetrated the wavering surface while Ronon was thrown across the room to hit the wall.

"Ronon!" Jennifer ran over to where the big guy was shaking his head, rising to his feet. His right arm hung at his side.

"I'm good." Ronon waved her away. "What now, McKay?"

Rodney had a dread feeling. "Teyla, come with me." They both approached the image. "Very carefully, just touch the barrier. Just barely." She followed his instructions while Rodney took a breath and prepared to stick his hand into the shimmering wall. Teyla's delicate touch still created a recoil that sent her stumbling backwards. Rodney fully inserted his hand. It hurt. Really hurt. He pulled back the hand and tapped his earbud. "Carson, get down here! Third level under the West Pier and bring whatever you'd need to treat a man lost in the desert!"

"What is happening, Rodney!" Teyla cried.

"What's going on, McKay?" Ronon seconded. He breathed in sharply and leaned slowly back against the wall.

Jennifer admonished, "You may have dislocated your shoulder, Ronon. It should be checked out."

Ronon eyed her steadily. "When we get Sheppard."

Rodney was frantically pushing scanner buttons and tapping tablet keys. "There's an access barrier, like when he lost those six months, but this isn't time dilation." He tapped more keys. "It's reading more like a transporter. Sheppard said there were movies, plural." He pointed to the other, blank picture frames. "I think he was transported to one location and the others shut down."

"Why did you ask Doctor Beckett to come?" Teyla asked.

"The field only likes the ATA gene," Rodney replied. "If we have to send someone for medical reasons, Jennifer can't go."

Lorne leaned down in front of the image and peered up at the sun. "He won't last long under that. We have to get him out."

"I don't know how to get him out!" Rodney yelled. "I don't know if we can send someone in! And if someone does go, I don't know where he'd be going or whether he can come back!" Rodney continued to tap keys as he approached the pedestal. He could feel himself sliding into panic. What was the purpose of another transport system if the Ancients had the Gates? How had Sheppard activated it? How long would the doorway stay open? Was it one-way? Or one-person? Nothing made sense.

SGA ~ SGA ~ SGA

Everything hurt. Every muscle, every bone. His hair hurt. And it was hot. John couldn't open his eyes and he couldn't breathe. Dry, hot air scraped through his nose. He coughed.

"Sheppard? Oh, thank God." John heard Rodney's voice in his ear, then more quietly, "Call Medical. Let Teyla know."

"Rodney?" John questioned roughly and rasped into a cough.

"Are you okay?"

"No." John rolled to his side to sit up and winced when his palm touched the sand. "It's hot." He raised the hand to shade his face and squinted to look around. He swallowed to wet his throat. "Where the hell am I? What happened?"

"What do you remember?"

John pulled out his aviators and rolled down his sleeves. "I was in the library. Looking at the movies on the wall."

"Anything else?... No, not like that! Do it again!"

John assumed the last was not meant for him since it was a muffled hiss. "There was a light. And it hurt." Like dousing-in-boiling-oil, like every nerve on fire. "So, what happened?" John tied his bandanna over his nose and mouth, then pulled his shirt into a tent over his head and tucked in his tee.

"Um, you've been transported somehow, but we don't know to where." John heard more hissing. "You're behind a barrier and we haven't figured out how it works," Rodney admitted.

"You're in the library?" John turned his head and looked in all directions. "Why can't I see you?"

"Uh, I don't know. We can see you, though. Can you hear me without your radio? Can you follow my voice?"

"Keep talkin'." John pocketed his earbud. He rose to his feet awkwardly in shifting sand and moved slowly in a widening circle, searching for the barrier and a way into the library. His outstretched hands felt only waves of heated air; he touched no invisible curtain that enforced his isolation.

"We do know the barrier is not supporting time-dilation."

"So I'm not turning into an old man," John dryly remarked.

"Teyla's on her way. She took Ronon- He, uh, had an accident, so Teyla and Jennifer forced him to be checked out. But Carson's here. And Lorne. Radek is searching the Database to help the people who are translating the text on the pedestal."

John said snidely, "Let me guess ~ no instruction manual."

"Well, if the library does predate the Database, the writing is older, too, and...we're having difficulty."

"You mean ancient Ancient?" John could hear harried whispers on the breeze and knew their worry ~ he was running out of time. He reinserted his earbud. "I can't triangulate with sound."

"How're ye doing, John?"

"I could use a cold one, Carson...and some sunscreen."

It was suddenly quiet, save some low hissing by Rodney and Beckett's gentle, urgent murmur. John's skin was pinched and hot. He didn't know how long he'd been there, but he'd started to burn. Without shelter and fluids he'd suffer severe injury, including heat stroke. Or worse. He already had the headache.

A flurry of movement off to his right drew John's attention. Something was approaching, throwing up a rhythmic, obscuring fan of sand, like a swimmer doing the butterfly stroke. The disturbance in the landscape traced the tops of the dunes and ultimately, was heading straight for him, approaching very fast. John felt his muscles tense as he drew his sidearm.

"John!" Teyla screamed in warning.

With unexpected speed a huge lizard-like creature rose out of the dune. It grabbed John's left leg in massive paws and sank its fangs in below John's knee. John lost his footing and fell backwards. The creature spun in the direction it had come. Pain tore through John's leg as he was dragged over sand. Agony gritted across his back. He tried to aim his weapon but found no sure target as the lizard navigated through its home territory, just under the desert surface. It slowed at the top of the knoll and John fired once, twice, three times, all solid hits. The lizard's movement stopped. John's breath held. The beast drooped and fell sidewise, with John's leg in the lock of its jaws.

"John! Can you hear me?" Teyla's voice rang in John's ear. He still had his earbud, but he'd lost his sunglasses and the bandanna. He tasted sand. His throat closed. He couldn't breathe.

"John, can you hear me? John, we are coming. You must be strong. We will bring you home."

" 'kay..." He was tired. His leg burned. And he was so cold.

SGA ~ SGA ~ SGA

"John! John!... He does not answer!" Teyla faced the others.

"We have to do something now," Carson spoke determinedly, then he marched over to his med kit on the floor.

Lorne moved to stand in his way. "You're not going, Doc."

Rodney watched the interplay and was reminded of the terrible choices Sheppard was forced to make ~ to sacrifice the one for the many, or to risk the many for the one...and having to calculate the odds. "Carson..." he began.

With a quick glance at Teyla, Carson shouted, "If we don't get him out of there soon, it'll be too bloody late!"

"Do you think I don't know that! It's not the Holland Tunnel, Carson! Traffic doesn't go in both ways, and I'm not even certain it goes one way! If it did, I'd send him an umbrella and a six-pack of beer!" Rodney took a breath. "Look, I don't know how long the portal will stay open, but everything that interferes with the barrier, depletes it. The more we interfere ~ Ronon versus Teyla ~ the more it affects the barrier. And if the barrier collapses, the door will close. It's losing power slowly anyway."

"Thirty-eight minute time limit?" Lorne asked.

Rodney shook his head. "It's not a wormhole. I don't know what it is. It reads more like a transporter, but I don't know how the field works to create the barrier that is essentially allowing this space in front of us to be in two places at once. Now," and he sighed, "I have found a way to remove the force field-"

Carson smiled. "I knew ye could do it, Rodney."

"I can remove the force field," Rodney doggedly continued, "but as I said, if I take down the force field, the portal will close ~ anyone on that planet will be trapped." Rodney looked at each face, knowing their determination. "There'll be a time lag. I'm trying to extend it by creating a temporary power loop. And I'm only talking about a few minutes once the field is down."

Lorne moved near the center of the room, close to the edge of the circular floor pattern. Teyla went to his side. Then Carson.

"Not you, Carson," Teyla said gently. "You must be ready when we bring John home. There is nothing you can do out there." She looked at the distant sands that were displayed in a frame on the wall yet which filled the space before her, near enough to touch. "Ronon is coming. We will bring John back."

"Ronon should be in the infirmary," Carson argued.

"I'm here instead," Ronon remarked upon arrival.

"You sure you're all right?" Lorne asked.

"Bad bruise. I'm good. Let's go get Sheppard."

"We're ready when you are, McKay," Lorne announced.

"Right... I can give you ten minutes at the outside, more like seven or eight before the access closes." Rodney looked up from his datapad. "I can only say 'six' with any certainty."

Lorne nodded and turned to Teyla and Ronon. "Ready?" The three tied field dressings to cover nose and mouth. "Let's go."

With several keystrokes Rodney nullified the barrier. The desert rushed into the library on a wave of heat.

SGA ~ SGA ~ SGA

Even with covering the heat choked them, radiating from the surface and beating down from above. Teyla and Ronon ran up the rise, with Lorne trailing them, ever watchful, providing cover ~ there was no telling how many lizards were under the sand.

"One minute." Rodney's voice sounded in their ears.

Lorne reached the top of the dune and looked around at nothing but more sand. Teyla checked Sheppard's pulse and pulled out field dressings, but Ronon had not found a way to separate Sheppard from the beast. The lizard's death grip was so solid even Ronon's strength could not pull apart the jaws.

"Two minutes."

Teyla slipped her knife from her ankle sheath and offered it.

"Not yet." Ronon drew his sword. Removing the fangs would take time and delicacy. If they couldn't separate Sheppard from the lizard, they'd separate the lizard from its fangs. One powerful stroke, plus another to finish, severed the neck.

"Three minutes... And that was just gross."

Teyla monitored the whispering pulse beneath her fingertips and tried to drip water into the mouth of an unconscious man. Ronon retrieved Teyla's knife and hacked away the creature's flesh and bone to ready Sheppard for transport.

"Bind his leg and the lizard's jaw together," Ronon ordered Teyla. "Make it tight so I can carry him."

"Four minutes. You still have to get back here."

Ronon lifted Sheppard and pulled him over his shoulders in a fireman's carry. The big man's first steps were unsteady, balancing his burden and slipping in the shifting sands.

"Five minutes! The power loop is beginning to destabilize!"

The air stole their breath and the sands pulled at their ankles. The return journey seemed longer than their race into the desert.

"Let's move, guys! There's another lizard on the way!" Lorne was awkwardly stepping backwards, keeping his weapon trained on the approaching flurry of sand.

"There are more than one, Major!" Teyla added.

"Six minutes! Hurry! I don't know how long you have!"

The first creature raced toward them and Lorne began to fire into the mound. The disturbance of sand stopped only meters from them and Lorne raised his P-90 at the next forming ridge. Teyla began firing and Lorne looked into the distance to see more furrows, far too many to handle, even if they had the time.

"Run, Teyla! Let's go!" Lorne grabbed her arm and they slid down the hill, making best speed on uncertain ground. They were seconds behind Ronon entering the library, where Rodney had thrown down his jacket to mark the point of overlap. There was a rising tone and everyone's ears suddenly popped. The desert disappeared, leaving scattered sand on the library floor.

SGA ~ SGA ~ SGA

A medical team was waiting, crowded into the library. Sheppard was placed on a gurney, started on fluids and rushed back to the infirmary, followed by his team and Lorne. His exposed skin was badly burned and he had abrasions and cuts over much of his body from being bounced over sand. The red and blistered skin was less cause for worry than dehydration. And the colonel had lost a lot of blood ~ his trousers were sodden, as was the bandage that secured the lizard remnant to his leg. More dangerous than blood loss was his reaction to the beast's bite; Sheppard had to be stabilized before surgery and they nearly lost him, more than once. The vigil was never easy.

SGA ~ SGA ~ SGA

Everything hurt. Every muscle, every bone. His skin ached. And it was hot. Sand and heat. And a lizard. His leg burned.

"John." Teyla's voice. John pried open his eyes. Teyla, Rodney asleep in a chair, and Ronon at the end of the bed. Teyla squeezed his arm and Ronon stood and said, "I'll get the doc."

"Everyone okay?" John croaked.

Teyla put a straw to his lips and he sipped cool water. "Yes, John, we are all fine."

"Sheppard? He's awake?" Rodney straightened in his chair and shouted, "Carson!" just as Ronon returned and sat down.

"Hush, Rodney." Beckett arrived to check monitors and the IV line. "How're ye feeling, Colonel?"

"Awful."

The doctor smiled. "Aye, no doubt. Ye're bruised and burned and ye lost a lot of blood. Yer leg was a wee bit tricky, but yer biggest fight has been against the creature's paralyzing venom. Two days, son. Ye still have a low-grade fever, but ye'll do."

John closed his eyes and felt his team settle around him. He fell asleep in the comforting presence of the city's hum.

SGA ~ SGA ~ SGA

"Do you want that?" Rodney pointed at John's blue Jell-o.

Ronon plopped a boot next to John's tray, blocking Rodney's access. "You've already eaten, McKay," he growled. "Twice."

Rodney glared as Ronon raised his other boot and crossed his ankles lazily on the mess hall table. Rodney haughtily ignored him by turning slightly and addressing only John. "So, do you want to hear what we've figured out so far?"

"In five minutes or less," Ronon challenged.

"Oh, har, Conan."

John interrupted the snarkfest. "Tell me about the library." He tiredly pushed his tray aside, away from McKay.

"We think they used the portal to go places described in the books. Think of a tourist center with a transport device."

"No How-To section." John yawned a sigh. "How far'd I go?"

"Not far." At John's stare Rodney hurried on. "You picked up several books and one after another, they filled the frames in the movie-room. Sort of allowing you to 'view your choices'. You said you were in the fauna section ~ cute critters for kids. We found the last book you handled, near the end of a shelf next to the movie-room. After activating that book, you walked into the movie-room, then you walked into the super-transporter."

"The light. There was a light when I crossed the room." John frowned. "And I definitely did end up far from the library!"

"You're lucky you didn't end up at the bottom of a lake."

"What're you talkin' about?"

"The super-transporter, or Portal, is not a Gate; it's limited to the planet and it's currently set to work on Lantea, not where we are now. You chose a book that is a set of coordinates on Lantea, the movie-room showed the book contents, and the super-transporter sent you to those coordinates, but on this planet."

"I remember. The desert mountain range Ford and I flew over ..." John glared. "I still don't see the point to the room."

"The Portal System may pre-date Jumpers, allowing travel to any local coordinate. When Atlantis moved, books about past worlds were locked out so only current books allowed travel and the rest remained holodeck. Unfortunately, we don't know how to reset the library for this planet. Anyone can activate books by inserting them in a slot, but only genes can activate the Portal. Radek removed the control crystal to prevent further mishaps."

"Wait a minute! I was put through Hell by a kids' book?"

"Not all 'critters' are cute. The book is about 'critters' in arid regions on Lantea, a location that coincidentally is desert here. It's what gave us a clue to what was going on. If the last book hadn't been about Lantea, you'd have been in a holodeck desert."

"I didn't insert a book in any slot, so why'd it transport me?"

"You and your Super Gene were the only one there. If the library were full, people would use smaller conference areas for interactive, 3-D experiences. Transport is only in the main room, to the location playing on the big screen, and everyone has to go together, like that Trek episode with the library viewing discs-"

"Why couldn't I get back?" John interrupted, yawning again.

Rodney frowned. "We're not sure. It's not time dilation, it's a spatial-dilation field, allowing overlap of the library and destination coordinates. That's why it hurt so much ~ you were in two places at once when you were passing through the barrier. A team is working on the pedestal text. There's mention of a 'key', which we can't find. It could've been a control device, for transition through the spatial differential and to activate the Portal from the destination coordinates. Sort of a way to call the elevator to your floor when you're ready. It'll probably take decades to investigate the place ~ it runs the length of the pier. I suspect the information is duplicated in the Database, somewhere, but, in the library, in addition to or in lieu of travel, books can create a 3-D experience that's interactive, for education or entertainment."

"So, why not list it in the city sensor data?"

Rodney almost snorted. "If the information's in the Database and the later Jumpers could go anywhere, the Portal System would be obsolete. Maybe they did 'shove it under the stairs'."

"Time's up, McKay," Ronon announced. "The man's tired."

"Wonder what else is 'under the stairs'..." John mused. *~*

Author's Note: I prefer the chemistry of the early cast that included Weir and Beckett, but I like the more relaxed Team relationships of later seasons. If I set this story so that Weir is present, I think she'd be able to translate "ancient Ancient", thereby removing much of the angst and mystery of the situation. I set the story in a time when the available language experts don't have Weir's skill.

The 'Star Trek' episode Rodney refers to involves Kirk, Spock and McCoy visiting a doomed world, the inhabitants of which have escaped the coming disaster by transporting themselves into the past via a library. Because they don't understand how the library works, after viewing 'moving picture discs' and going through the Time Portal, Kirk ends up accused of witchcraft, and Spock and McCoy find themselves in a major ice age. [Disclaimer: I don't own anything 'Star Trek', either.]

Exploration of the city was, in my opinion, a major missed opportunity in the show. A city the size of Manhattan - what could be in all those "empty" rooms? Perhaps I'll come up with something for another installment in the "Sheppard and Rodney Explore Atlantis" series...

There is another tag scene (Chapter Two). This is a note to tell people to read no more if they are not John-and-Teyla fans. The story can end here and it is complete as an angsty adventure. Stop here, if you do not want to read ship stuff.

Thanks for reading.