A/N:
My apologies for the gigantic space between updates on this story. Life simply has a way of becoming busier than I planned and robbing me of free time to write things. It'll be a few weeks before things calm down again, and I will do my best to update this in a timely manner between now and then, but no real promises.
"Well, we were on our way back to the jumper..." Sheppard
This situation is far more certain doom than McKay ever imagined he would be in.
Then again, he never actually thought he would be millions of light years away from home, trapped in a gateship (yes, he still calls it a gateship - if Major Sheppard survives, he can suck it) with a seemingly irretractable drive pod, trying to get it to budge and praying it happened before hard vacuum or Wraith ships got to them.
Because, in his mind, the Wraith are always a possibility now.
He really doesn't want to get into all of nightmares that idea produces...
Especially not when he's supposed to be tracking down control pathways.
Although, generally speaking, doing that is a bit tedious.
Outside of the whole 'how are we going to die' aspect-
Because McKay isn't totally convinced, despite all the effort he's putting in, that this is going to work.
There are thousands of pathways, and even if they had a hundred people running tests back on Atlantis right now, it would still take hours they don't have to correctly identify the one to the drive pods.
At least I don't have to explain what I'm doing to fifty million people, he tells himself as he starts running down another pathway.
And this lets him think about something other than gigantic alien bugs attaching themselves to human necks and killing them.
The thought alone makes McKay nauseous.
But it is, in fact, a good distraction for Ford and Teyla.
They're not questioning what he's doing - Sheppard has all of their attention.
McKay tries not to let his muttering become visible, because there's too much they might try to make him explain right now that he doesn't have the time to explain.
But then Sheppard asks for Beckett on the radio, and all pretense is lost for a second.
Not only does McKay have to listen through the rewind... he has to relive it.
Knuckle down, Rodney. Knuckle down and get it down.
It doesn't do it completely, but it's enough.
For now, it's enough.
