Disclaimer - "Stargate" and all related characters are the property of MGM Television Entertainment.

Chapter 4 – Broken

The team stood around the injured man in silence. The heaviness and tension in the air was only broken by the faint crackle of the fires burning nearby. The mood was reflected in their bleak surroundings and the devastation of the grey and dead world surrounding them.

Sheppard still had his hand against McKay's chest and slowly moved it up onto the man's shoulder. Teyla was looking down at the injured McKay in horror. Ronon looked on impassively.

Ronon was the first to speak, "It's not you though, because you're here with us and have been the whole time."

McKay had subconsciously moved his hand up and was tightly gripping his side where the spike was sticking out of the man on the ground. His face was as white as a sheet and he was only staying upright because of Sheppard's steadying hand on his shoulder. For a moment it looked like he had lost the ability of to speak.

"I… Uh… It is me. Or at least a version of me from another timeline. As this hasn't happened already; I draw the horrific conclusion that we have now shifted into the future."

Teyla took her eyes off the future-McKay and looked at Rodney, "Do you think this is what is going to happen?"

Sheppard was looking down at future-McKay trying to gauge the extent of his injuries. If he had been wearing a vest or rucksack before the explosion, the force had torn them both off. Along with the obvious metal spike driven through his side, there were numerous ugly burns and cuts all over his chest, arms and legs. His left arm was also bent round at a peculiar angle, the upper arm bone looked badly broken. Sheppard crouched down and placed a hand lightly on future-McKay's chest. He could feel a soft and rapid heartbeat, but could also feel that his breathing was very shallow and his chest rattled and wheezed. He surmised future-McKay's breathing trouble may be caused by broken ribs or inhalation of fire or debris from the dome which had fairly obviously only just exploded. He had seen this before in the wake of a bombing when he was serving in Afghanistan; it did not bode well.

Sheppard took his hand away and stood up. Although his hand was now covered in blood and grit he did not make any expression of disgust or motion to try and clean it. "I don't know Teyla." He looked at McKay who was only just managing to stand on his own. Ronon had moved closer to make sure if he did pass out, he would be caught.

Teyla asked, "If this truly is what is going happen; do you not think that Rodney would like our help?"

"Without cutting tools, that may be difficult." Sheppard said.

"We have to try something. Maybe if we help him he will awaken and tell us what happened."

"Good thinking Teyla."

Teyla grabbed a field dressing from one of her pockets and knelt down next to future-McKay. She looked over him, trying to decide which injury to treat first. She settled for the spike and looked up at Ronon, "Help me please. Hold him steady so that I may bandage his side."

Ronon looked at the spike sticking out of future-McKay's side, "We could just pull it out."

"I do not think that is a good idea Ronon. The spike has gone right through him and is probably deeply embedded in the ground. Any movement will only cause him further injury. Even if we are able to remove the spike, we have no way to stop the bleeding."

McKay was still looking down at his future self. His initial shock was dissipating and his face had now fallen into sadness. "This landscape; it looks the same as when we first came to the planet. I know we didn't get a very good look before it all went to hell, but maybe the gate has reappeared." He looked away in the direction of the gate unable to endure the sight of his future self any longer.

Teyla had reached underneath future-McKay and was wrapping the bandage around the pole while Ronon held onto each side of his torso to keep him still.

McKay continued, "If we can reach the gate, maybe this will never happen and I won't have to die."

Sheppard rounded on him and grabbed both his shoulders in a firm grip and shook him slightly. McKay looked up at him, his lips were pressed together in a thin line and he now appeared to be resigned to his fate, his eyes were filled with sorrow and fear. "You're not going to die Rodney!" Sheppard tipped his head slightly towards future-McKay, but kept his eyes firmly locked on Rodney's, "He's not dead. You'll figure it out. Now that we know this is going to happen, we can prevent it."

"I don't know John," he sniffed, "We've been shifting through time. There's no reason for us to believe that we can have any influence on future events." He continued, "I actually don't think it will matter whether we make it back to the gate or not. There is no way of knowing when the timeline will shift again. He is me, therefore I don't think we would make it. This has already happened. I don't think there's anything we can do to prevent it."

Teyla had just finished wrapping the bandage around future-McKay's back and stood up. She looked down at the pinned and stricken man in sadness. She believed their McKay was correct. This man was probably beyond their help. She steeled herself to continue tending his injuries.

Teyla crouched down once again and started to gently peel back future-McKay's shirt to clean the burns across his chest. She was startled when he shifted slightly and his face screwed up in pain.

Sheppard had released McKay and was watching Teyla. He was surprised when future-McKay began to show signs of regaining consciousness. He stepped forward and knelt down peering into his face. "Rodney, are you with us?"

Future-McKay took as deep a breath as he could manage and gasped as it made him shift slightly on the bar. "Sheppard?" he harshly whispered. "I thought… after the explosion… when no one came to help straight away." His voice trailed off. He tilted his head over to the side away from Sheppard as tears tracked from his eyes and created smears through the dirt and blood across his face.

"Stay with us Rodney!" Sheppard demanded and grabbed the hand of future-McKay's undamaged arm.

"Us?" Future-McKay moved his head back to centre and struggled to open his eyes. He looked at Sheppard leaning over him and then around at Teyla and Ronon. Then his eyes settled on his other self. "Oh," was the only thing he said.

McKay felt a strange sensation crushing upon his heart as he gazed into the eyes of his future self. He had never experienced a feeling so strange. It was a sensation of unreality, like the world had changed into a shimmering dream where he had no control. He felt like there was an impenetrable barrier between him and his future self. He knew without thinking that he should not get too close to his future self or something very bad would happen.

Future-McKay held the eyes of his counterpart for as long as he could stand. Teyla had finished peeling and cutting away the strips of shirt left on his chest and gently laid gauze over the burns and cuts. This caused him to grimace and break eye contact as he closed his eyes in pain.

"That means I was right," he said, breathing through his teeth, "It didn't make any sense why it exploded. There was no power, no explosives to create it."

"What exploded?" Sheppard asked.

"I don't know. I shut down the field and took the Zed PM." He grimaced and opened his eyes again. "It was a quantum stasis device. I must have caused some kind of fracture in time when I shut it down."

McKay recovered slightly and was deep in thought as he continued to look down at his future self. "That would make sense. If the Ancients had been messing with a time device it stands to reason that any disruption would have catastrophic repercussions."

"Listen," future-McKay gasped, "I didn't have time to figure out how to fix it before the explosion. The Zed PM and my laptop are in my rucksack. I was able to download a large amount of data." He leaned his head over and looked at McKay, "I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out before this happens again."

Ronon asked, "Where's your rucksack?"

Future-McKay took a shallow breath and closed his eyes once more.

"Rodney?" Sheppard was still looking at him, "We have to know so that we can fix this!"

Future-McKay kept his eyes shut and answered weakly, "I don't know. It was on my back before the explosion hit."

"Rodney," Sheppard squeezed his hand gently, "Rodney?"

It was no use. Future-McKay had slipped back into unconsciousness.

Sheppard looked at Teyla in concern. She merely stated, "Without further medical assistance, there is nothing more we can do for him."

Ronon, kept his face stoic and said, "Let's find this rucksack then we can get out of here." He stalked off and began circling around them searching the ground.

Sheppard let go of future-McKay's hand and gently laid it back on the ground. It pained him to see the man in such distress. He could not help feeling a nagging sensation that it was not their McKay and it made him feel less. Like this McKay was an impostor and not worthy of such strong feelings.

Sheppard stood up and turned to look at 'his' McKay. He thought he had never seen the man looking so lost.

"Do you still think I'll be able to sort this out and not die?" McKay asked.

"I have faith in you Rodney. Don't give up."

Teyla went over and stood next to McKay, she placed a reassuring hand on his back, "The Colonel is right, if you give up now then this future may well become the only one which awaits us."

McKay looked down at his future-self one last time and then set his jaw and hardened his expression, "Alright. Let's find this rucksack."

It was slow going sifting through the loose rubble and dirt from the explosion. There were muttered curses as fingers singed on fires, which were still raging across the landscape.

After a while Ronon found the rucksack. His eyes still sharp from his days as a runner. The rucksack was covered in dirt and torn. It was still intact enough that nothing had fallen out. He carried it over to McKay who had seated himself so that he was facing away from the other McKay.

"Here you go," said Ronon, dumping the rucksack down in front of him.

McKay hastily unzipped the main pocket and pulled his hand away when he cut his finger against the zip, which had become sharp as it was damaged in the blast. He stuck his finger in his mouth and continued more carefully.

He pulled out a smashed laptop and the depleted ZPM.

"Sheppard, can you bring my laptop over here, he asked. Sheppard was still scrabbling around in some rubble a little way off and had not yet realised that the rucksack had been found. Teyla looked up too and headed over to them.

Sheppard sat down opposite McKay so that he could still look across at future-McKay who was still lying unmoving a few metres away. He took the rucksack off. McKay unzipped it and removed his own laptop, "Put the Zed PM in there and I'll see whether I can salvage anything from the hard drive. It looks like it may just be the screen that's smashed."

McKay plugged a lead in to link the two laptops and clicked a few keys.

Teyla and Ronon watched him work for a few seconds and then both decided to go and sit over next to future-McKay, who had not stirred. Teyla took his uninjured hand in hers and brushed some dust off his forehead. Ronon just sat and stared. Teyla laid her hand on his chest, as Sheppard had done earlier. She could feel his chest was now barely rising and falling and his heartbeat was so faint she could hardly feel it. She took her hand away and shared a concerned and sad look with Sheppard. They did not say anything.

Sheppard blinked and looked back to his fully alive, aware and breathing McKay, "Any luck?

"Yes, I was right. The hard drive is intact. I have nearly finished downloading all the data. There is a huge amount of information about this planet and The Forge."

He shifted to become more comfortable. "There we go. All the data has been transferred." He unplugged the smashed laptop and tossed it to the ground next to him.

Sheppard asked, "What have you got Rodney? Any mention of the gate or time device?"

"Hold on a moment." He quickly typed and his eyes darted across the screen. "There is only one mention of the gate. It seems that the information my other self was able to download also included data about the experiments the Ancients ran here ten thousand years ago."

His eyes widened in surprise, "It says the gate is in orbit. It's a space gate!"

"Then how did it come to be on the planet?" Sheppard asked.

"I don't know. Maybe the Ancients moved it."

"Then how come those guys we saw in the last shift had never seen or heard of it? Ibex told us the Ancients left the planet 'countless centuries ago.'"

"The only other explanation is that it was knocked out of orbit and fell through the atmosphere. Possibly during the Wraith attack which caused this." He waved his hand around indicating the blasted landscape and black, cloudy sky they sat under.

Suddenly Ronon shouted, "It's happening again!"

"I wonder what delights await us in the next shift," said McKay as he hastily stuffed his laptop back into the rucksack next to the depleted ZPM.

Sheppard picked up the bag and put it on his back. He then stood and helped McKay to his feet. Ronon and Teyla came over and they all stood together.

The now familiar wave tore across the sky and changed it to lighter shade of grey, normal clouds. The ground was once again turning to green. A faint sound of shouting started. It grew louder as the wave approached. The team warily lifted up their P90s in preparation.

The wave came closer. Future-McKay vanished and the dome reformed. The same wall they had seen in the previous shift surrounded it. The shouting became deafening and was now accompanied by a lot of metal upon metal sounds.

As the wave passed over them they were all thrown to the ground as a large crowd of knights ran into them. The knights seemed unfazed and kept running and shouting. Their swords drawn and ready.

Sheppard recognized the sound as a battle cry. He rolled onto his front and quickly stood up. He turned to see what they were running towards. He noticed they wore the same armour as Ibex and his fellow knights. There were hundreds of them and they were all running towards another crowd of knights on the other side of the field. The other knights did not have as much armour and were wielding bows, crossbows and some carried what appeared to be large and crude guns.

The last of the knights ran past. Sheppard looked over to check on his team. Teyla looked dazed, she had a cut across her forehead. She dabbed her hand up to it and it came away with some blood on the fingertips. Ronon was also already standing up and there was a nasty purple bruise spreading across his arm.

McKay was still lying on the ground and had a hand on his upper chest. Sheppard leant down and grabbed his other hand to help him up. "Are you hurt?" He asked.

"Well I just got a sound kick in the ribs and couldn't breathe for a moment. However, I think that's now the least of our problems."

Sheppard thought that sounded unusual, but turned to follow McKay's gaze towards the knights who had run past them. The ranged weapons crowd were winning and the line was being quickly driven back across the field towards them. Heavy knights were falling over with large dents in their breastplates as the guns from the other side fired lethal cannon balls at them.

Sheppard feared the worst and he was unfortunately right. One of the knights shouted, "Fall back to The Forge! We must stand!"

McKay shared a horrified glance with Sheppard. The Forge was behind them. The knights were going to bring the battle right on top of them.

"Run!" Shouted Sheppard to his team as the knights rapidly approached.

A/N – Wow I'm such a sucker for a cliffhanger! I found this chapter very difficult to write. Please tell me what you think… Thanks!