Chapter 4
Atlantis
Two weeks later
"We agreed to provide the villagers with medical supplies and…" Lorne paused and looked at Dr. Weir and Colonel Caldwell. The two, along with Dr. Beckett, were sitting opposite him, Ronon, Teyla and Dr. McKay. Although the commanders of Atlantis requested the debriefing, they were not paying much attention to what he was saying. They were just starring at Rodney.
"…and they've asked for the healer," Lorne continued his report,"so they will expect us back with…"
"Would you quit staring at me?!" Rodney cut him off and scowled at Caldwell and Elizabeth. He was annoyed with the looks everyone gave him. "You're not in the zoo."
At least Elizabeth had the decency to look embarrassed. Caldwell just kept starring with amused expression on his face.
Lorne and Carson was trying to stifle a laugh and not doing a good job at it. Teyla exchanged a knowing look with Ronon.
"Rodney…when you returned, you never really explained what has happened," said Elizabeth tentatively, "maybe now is a good time to…"
"Okay! It was rain!" harshly interrupted Rodney. He sighed and then continued, "It's all started when we walked through the stargate …
-sga-
… After the AR-1team which now consisted of Major Lorne, Dr. McKay, Teyla and Ronon stepped through the stargate on planet M8G-B57, they gaped at the picturesque scenery around them.
They have sent M.A.L.P. beforehand and it showed dense vegetation, which made surface of the planet inaccessible for a jumper. However, the M.A.L.P.'s camera did not transmit this.
"Wow!" Rodney looked around — everything was green: grass, trees, plants, ground, stones, even the sky was of a greenish hue. The variety of green hue was astonishing, it consisted of dark green, teal blue (dark greenish-blue), lime, light sea green, dark olive, turquoise and other shades of green which defied any description.
Rodney was so engrossed in surveying the landscape that he flinched when Lorne touched his shoulder. "What?" asked Rodney.
"I asked, is it," Lorne waved his hand indicating the airspace around them, "Safe to be here?"
"Uh," Rodney looked at the scanner, "There are no indications of radiation, no measurable toxins. It's safe…I think."
"Perhaps we should continue?" Teyla indicated to a narrow path which originated at the edge of the forest.
Before Lorne could answer Ronon has already made his way down the path.
Despite that Major Lorne has been leading the AR-1 team for several months now, they still have not quite adjusted to this situation.
The most troublesome was Ronon. Throughout his time in Atlantis he and Col. Sheppard became almost like brothers. Ronon obeyed Sheppard's orders not because of the chain of command but out of respect and loyalty. However such connection has not formed between Lorne and Ronon yet. So there had already been numerous times when Ronon completely ignored Major Lorne's orders and had done things in a way he thought Sheppard would have done them.
McKay….Well, Rodney was Rodney. He still talked a lot, still whined a lot, his behavior have not change much when they were off-world. But what had changed for him, was that the missions stopped being fun. With Sheppard as the leader of their team, every mission, even a disastrous one, had its amusing moments and banter. These days they were still dangerous and intriguing but it was just not the same.
Teyla always was the most responsible, sensible and the voice of reason among all her team-mates. Although she was frustrated as all of them, she tried to stay focused on the mission and to keep her team-mates from killing each other.
/
"Maybe it's because of some kind of mineral or the plants or maybe there is something in the atmosphere! I wonder what color is water on this planet? We should send here biologist and geologists…" relentlessly babbled Rodney.
The team was walking down the path which led them through dense forest. The leaves and trunks of the trees were of so intense lime-green color that the sunlight filtered through the leaves created a greenish haze. The scene was pretty impressive if somewhat disturbing.
Suddenly Ronon stopped; Lorne and Teyla have done the same. Rodney has not been paying any attention to his surroundings and bumped into Lorne's back, "Hey! Watch it!" hissed Rodney. Teyla gripped Rodney's hand and made a motion to be silent.
"Ronon, what's wrong?" asked Major Lorne.
"Heard something," replied Ronon taking his gun out of the holster.
"I haven't heard anything," interjected Rodney looking around cautiously.
Then there was a sound of cracking branch. Ronon, Lorne and Teyla aimed their weapons at the group of trees to the left of them.
A man dressed in black cotton pants and brown tunic, stained with small light green spots came from behind the trees. He had short dark hair, was about two meter high and of strong constitution. But the most noticeable part of his body was his eyes. The pupils were in their usual color — black, however, the irises were bright blue and the scleras were, as almost everything on this planet, green.
"I am Kepheus," the man introduced himself, "I wish you no harm." Kepheus was still standing several meters away from the team, not risking coming any closer.
The man seemed harmless, so Lorne decided to try a 'make friends' approach. He though that it was what Sheppard would do.
"I'm Major Lorne; this is Teyla Emmagan, Doctor Rodney McKay and specialist Ronon Dex. We are peaceful travelers and traders," said Lorne as he and Teyla lowered their weapons. He looked pointedly at Ronon who was still pointing his gun at Kepheus. Ronon gave Lorne a look and then reluctantly lowered his gun. Rodney was just standing there and starring at Kepheus's eyes.
"Please, follow me, our village is not far from here," Kepheus began walking down the path.
/
The team led by Kepheus was striding for about ten minutes when Rodney finally found his voice, "Um, … Kepheus, no one of my team-mates here thought about asking you … why everything on this planet is in different shades of green?"
"Doctor McKay, I will answer your question as soon as we reach the village. We should not be outside when he comes," replied Kepheus and speeded up his stride.
Lorne exchanged glances with Ronon and Teyla. The peculiar terrain of this planet was not enough; there always have to be some sinister enemy. This mission was not the first one where they encountered with adversaries. And the Major began to think that the true trouble magnet of the AR-1 team was Dr. McKay and not Lt. Col. Sheppard.
"Who comes?" asked Rodney looking apprehensive.
"The Rain," pointed to the sky Kepheus.
The team exchanged confused looks — 'The rain?'
/
It had started raining in ten minutes. Everyone managed to make it to the shelter in time. Well, almost everyone.
Rodney's physical training was not his strong suit. It was Sheppard's job to fight with bad guys, and when they had to run from somebody or something, Sheppard always made sure that Rodney was in his line of sight.
Lorne did not have such habit. He noticed that McKay has left behind only when they reached Kepheus's dwelling.
While running, Rodney twisted his ankle, slipped and fell. By the time he got up and limped to the hut, the rain was pouring in full force. And what a surprise, the rain was in green color!
When Rodney finally stepped over the threshold he was greeted with bursts of laughter from his team-mates.
-sga-
"Kepheus said it will come down in a few weeks," Rodney rubbed his hand without effect. "And he said it's not dangerous," saying that Rodney looked at Carson inquiringly.
"Aye, the tests showed no known toxins, no allergens," answered Beckett looking Rodney up and down.
When the team had returned, he was the first one who saw the real extent of damage while doing post-mission exam. Rodney's face and arm were covered in green paint. The rest of his body which was protected by clothes during the rain reminded now of a leopard pattern but instead of black spots Rodney had green spots on pale skin. In addition he had a black eye — also a result of his fall. But in the grand scheme of things that was nothing.
"Well, all things considered, I'm sure everyone will agree that it would be reasonable to suspend the team's off world activities until Doctor McKay … will restore his natural color," announced Caldwell giving Elizabeth questioning look. Elizabeth nodded in approval.
Everyone began standing up from their seats and leaving the conference room.
"Too bad Sheppard's not here, he would've enjoyed the view," said Ronon as he was walking alongside Lorne.
"I've got it covered," the Major smiled mischievously then took out of his pocket a Polaroid photograph with Rodney on it in his current state.
-sga-
Rodney stumbled over the threshold to his quarters. After today's events he was exhausted, annoyed and frustrated. He threw off his jacket which landed in a heap near another pile of soiled clothes, then trudged further into his quarters and slumped on the bed. He took his laptop, opened the application and scrolled down searching for the latest e-mail from Sheppard. As Rodney found it, he clicked 'Reply' and then stared at the blank page in front of him.
/
During first few hours in the Pegasus galaxy after the Replicators 'incident', Rodney thought that Atlantis expedition won't last a day without Sheppard. Granted, Sheppard found trouble on every planet he stepped foot on. He also had a tendency to drag other innocent people into dangerous situations along with him. The same people, who later had to come up with a rescue plan. But nevertheless Sheppard would do everything in his power to save those people even if it meant sacrificing himself.
But the first day ended and everyone was alive, Atlantis did not fall apart. And as week had ended also nothing major has happened. Well, of course everyday in Atlantis was a crisis but there was nothing that Rodney could not deal with. The whole week everybody was busy with unpacking, cleaning up after Replicators and checking out the damage that the city had received. And although nobody actually talked about Sheppard's absence, Rodney could see that it in some way had affected almost everyone.
Elizabeth started to stay in her office till 2 a.m. Once she stayed there working on some translations for forty-eight hours straight. Driving herself to exhaustion was her way of dealing with this particular situation. That way after hours and hours of work she did not have any strength left to feel guilty about John's reassignment. After this incident, Carson threatened to take her off duty if she kept this up.
Every day Ronon went for a jog, met with the team for meals, won in hand-to-hand fighting with Marines. The only indication of Ronon's frustration was the number of training accident after which military personal had to be treated for by Carson and his staff.
Teyla missed John greatly, although she did not resort to bodily harm anyone. She just meditated more and tried to keep her team from falling apart.
When Rodney asked Carson how he managed to stay so optimistic and so … cheerful, Beckett said that he was thinking not about John being away but that each day they were closer to getting Sheppard back.
Scientists, with the exception of Rodney and Radek, had not really noticed that Sheppard was not on Atlantis anymore. They remembered about that only when they needed Sheppard in their labs to turn some ancient devices on.
The most extraordinary was behaving Caldwell. He had changed operation's protocols but not much. He had not said anything mean or disrespectful about Sheppard. He was just being … nice which was very alarming.
Military personal was not thrilled with their new CO. They even prepared some pranks, with Rodney's help of course, but there just was not a right time or even a cause to carry them out … yet.
Rodney had been hit by IOA's decision the hardest. Sheppard was on Earth, most likely in combat zone, judging from his e-mails content which Rodney was able to decipher, doing something dangerous and stupid. And everything in Atlantis reminded Rodney of his friend's absence: Caldwell sitting on the meeting instead of Sheppard, missions with Lorne as their leader, empty seat at the table in the mess hall where Sheppard used to slouch, the race cars which now lay abandoned in Rodney's quarters; there was no bantering; no one smirked at Rodney the way Sheppard used to. Even movie nights were not the same. Rodney suggested conducting them in former Sheppard's quarters. Although Sheppard's stuff was still on Earth and the room was mostly empty, being in his quarters somehow made the team feel closer to him.
/
Rodney finished typing about missions and current situation on Atlantis, keeping in mind General Landry's warning about security clearance. Anyone who did not belong to stargate program would have found such e-mails ridiculous (who in their right mind would put 'vampires', 'Xena' and 'yo-yo' in one sentence?). Then he typed in his next move — bishop to E6 — this was their second chess game and so far Rodney was winning. With a sigh, he clicked 'Send'.