Stargate Atlantis: Season 6 I guess. I will think of a better title soon!
Chapter 1: Detected
The swooshing sound of the door to Rodney's lab opening made him looked up from his work tablet to see Jennifer Keller standing in the doorway with a grin on her face. Her long, blond hair was partially tied up; the top half was neatly tied back from her face but the bottom was flowing free. Rodney smiled back, his heart warming.
"Hey you" She said, walking into the room and standing in front of where Rodney was seated. Rodney was already working on his tablet again.
"Hey" He said, not looking up again. Jennifer sighed.
"Rodney, we're back on earth! And all you're doing is... well, what are you doing?" She enquired.
"Ahh, going over power requirements to get the city back to Pegasus. It doesn't look good. We used up the rest of the ZMP moving Atlantis to neutral waters." Rodney said. Jennifer walked around the desk and sat on the seat next to Rodney, taking his hand.
"You know, most of us have accepted that we're not going to make it back." She said gently, squeezing his hand.
"I know, but I was thinking if we could maybe build our own ZPM, now we have several to study, or if we could find some way of powering the wormhole drive with a naqeda generator..." He mumbled on. Jen sighed and squeezed Rodney's hand again. He looked at her, his blue eyes wide as usual.
"I was thinking since we're back on earth, we could go-" Jennifer was cut off my John Sheppard and Ronan entering the room. Both Rodney and Jennifer smiled at the new comers; Ronan avoided eye contact with Jennifer. She had turned him down for Rodney, and he was still getting over it. Ronan, and everyone else, never quite figured out what Jennifer saw in him.
"Hey, I was thinking we could all go to see a movie, maybe have dinner at a restaurant or take a stroll in the park, go for a fly around earth in a jumper..." John suggested. John obviously wanted to leave the base, and the eager tone in his voice showed this.
"I think it would be great for Ronan to see Earth." He continued, walking around to the other side of Rodney's workbench to see what he was working on. Ronan stayed put, his expression blank as always. Rodney looked up at Jennifer, who was watching Teyla enter the room. She and Jennifer exchanged a brief 'hello' smile and then Jennifer turned towards Rodney.
"Well, Jen and I were thinking..." Rodney protested. Jen squeezed his hand again, and looked down at him.
"Rodney, I think it would be good to go out with the team." She said, smiling. Besides, Jen thought, we'll have plenty of other opportunities to be alone. I'll make sure of it.
"Yeah, but we go out with them-" Rodney whined.
"Go out without it being on a mission." Jen said, correcting herself.
"C'mon McKay, it'll be good. Hey, what are you working on?" John asked. Ronan and Teyla stopped their quite conversation to hear what Rodney had to say.
"Well, as I was telling Jen before you three came waltzing in, I am working on a way to get Atlantis back into the Pegasus galaxy." He stated, his stare narrowing in irritation.
"And?" John edged him on. Though no one really wanted to admit it, everyone wanted to return to Pegasus.
"It's not going so well. Look, it's extremely hard to even comprehend the massive power requirements to get Atlantis flying again. We're talking two, maybe three fully charged ZMPs." Rodney admitted. Jennifer got up stood behind him and squeezed his shoulders.
"Rodney, we know you'll try your best. But we all know that we may very well never get back-" Teyla began.
"I know, it's just... I..." Rodney slouched into his chair. Jen put her arms around his neck and pressed her face to his hair. Ronan shifted his weight from one leg to the other. The silence in the room was piercing.
"So-" John's sentence was interrupted by the crackling noise of the radio.
"Coronal Sheppard to the Gate room." Mr Woolsey's voice boomed. The whole team looked at each other for a brief moment. Three seconds later the room was empty; the whole group was following John to the nearest transporter. As the group walked into the gate room, Mr Woolsey was pacing up and down. Chuck was putting something up on the big screen behind the consoles. Rodney immediately walked over to the screen, analysing what was showing. Jen joined him as she watched his frown deepen.
"Ahh, there you are. We have... a situation. Chuck?" Mr Woolsey said, smoothing out his jacket. Chuck pointed over towards the screen to show that he was one step ahead of him. They turned towards the screen.
"Are they ships?"Teyla asked, pointing towards the two small dots on the sensors. Chuck nodded.
"What's so significant about two ships?" Ronan asked. Mr Woolsey's reply had them curious, but at the same time worried.
"Well, we don't recognise what kind of ships they are. Also, they only appeared in our solar system this morning, and on the very edge." He answered.
"Move aside" Rodney commanded Chuck, pushing through the other bodies crowding the screen. While they were gawking at the screen, Rodney had run a few scans and searches.
"I know what kind of ship they are. We didn't pick it up straight away because the ships are a mix, sort of like a combination, of two different technologies. A mix of Ancient technology... and Asguard technology." Rodney said. The blood drained from his face as he spoke. Everyone stared at the two dots again.
"Are you sure?" Mr Woolsey enquired.
"Yes, otherwise I wouldn't have told you."Rodney said bluntly. John and Mr. Woolsey exchanged glances.
"But, what does this mean?" Jennifer asked quietly, voicing the question everyone was thinking.
"I don't know, but judging by what happened with our last encounter," Rodney shivered as he said this, "it's not good." Panic was plain in Rodney's eyes as he spoke.