"Death and Destiny"
A/n: This is probably going to be AU after "Adrift" and "Lifeline". This story is based on the rumor that Rodney McKay dies in the first episode of the 4th season only to be brought back to life in "Lifeline", minus his soul. Spoilers for the second half of season 3 and the first few eps of season 4. Told first person from the one whose life is about to change forever; and now "Death and Destiny", chapter one.
Chapter One:
"Direction: Lost, Location: Elsewhere"
Atlantis, Somewhere in Space
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
"Oh, what now?" I say as the Control Room shakes.
Teyla looks up. "What is happening?"
"We just dropped out of hyperspace." I reply and head back to the control panel.
"Have we already reached M12578?"
"No, there's no way. It should have at least taken another few hours. The Hyper drive just shut down."
"Why?"
I look at Sheppard. "I don't know."
"Get it back up."
I give him a frustrated look. "I just said 'I don't know what's wrong'. I can't get it back up if I don't know what happened."
"Where are we?"
"The middle of nowhere. There's no planets, no moons, no Stargates…"
"How much power do we have?"
I look down then back up to Sheppard. "No this can't be right..." I continue typing.
"How much!"
I look up at Sheppard. "At current consumption we have 24 hours of power left. After that there's no shield. No shield, no atmosphere, no atmosphere we'll..."
"Can't we use the Stargate?" Teyla interrupts.
I shake my head. "In order to dial a Stargate it has to be calibrated to a specific location. We are lost! We dropped out of hyperspace way too soon; I have no idea where we are!"
Sheppard turned back to face me. "So you mean we're stuck here?"
"Yes, yes didn't I just say that? Now move."
I turn toward the control panel on my left, or what's left of it and point, "Radek , find the substantiation for the Star drive, download everything from the moment Sheppard sat in the chair to the cut off of the Hyper drive. Then meet me in my lab."
Radek nods. "Right away." Then turns and disappears around the corner.
I grab my laptop and head to the nearest Transporter.
Sheppard, tired of being ignored, speaks up. "Rodney what….?
I cut him off. "Not now, busy." I keep moving to the door when Sheppard steps in the way. "Rodney, if I'm going to be any help I need to know what's going on."
I give him an exasperated sigh. "You want to know what's going on?" I continue without giving him a chance to reply.
"Fine. If I can't get the Star drive working in about…" I look down at my watch. "15 hours, then we're screwed."
Sheppard then picks that moment to interrupt. "I thought you said we had 24 hours before…"
I cut him off. "Can I finish? Thank you. We have about 24 hours give or take until we drain the Zed.P.M to a point in which it can no longer run the shield. At that time we'll be exposed to hard vacuum."
"I know that."
"Yes, but what you don't know is where we are. We know it'll take at least several hours to reach M12578. For all we know the Star drive or even the hyper drive could have been damaged entering Hyperspace! This could make a four hour trip into a nine, pending nothing goes wrong. Otherwise we could be pushing ten. So, the faster I figure out what happened, the faster I might be able to fix it and get us out of here. Are we all caught up now? Good."
I step pass Sheppard and continue onward when he say's something else. "So you can fix it." He says it more like a statement than a question.
"I said 'might', didn't I?"
"That's not a 'Yes'."
"And it's not a no either. Look, I'll be in my lab if by some off chance you need me. Hopefully nothing else will go wrong."
He nods. "Do what you can."
"Yeah." And I continue walking. As I enter the lab I think 'It's days like these that make you wonder why you bother to get up in the morning.'