Okay, I think we're now into the new stuff. Everything from the first time I put this up has again been uploaded and now for the stuff that has only just been written. As always, thanks for reading and please leave a review.
Elizabeth's office was just as she had left it, to John it felt like she'd stepped out for a moment and would be back any second. If only that were true. He couldn't bring himself to sit in her chair so instead he took up his usually seat in front of her desk pulling the reports that were beginning to pile up towards him. The top papers where in Elizabeth's neat handwriting, the notes she made from the journal translation that she had sent down to Rodney's lab. Someone must have brought them back. Suddenly standing, John went to the corner of her office where the journals the language teams had returned were. If one of them held information that had been useful, then surely the others would to. With Elizabeth's notes maybe they can find something, anything that could help them translate the others. He didn't know why he hadn't thought of it before, it seemed so obvious now. Rounding her desk, John reached out to move the chair out of the way and bending down to look under her desk, knowing that's way she'd put the journals, surprised to find them missing. Standing back up he crossed the catwalk and heading over to Chuck.
"Did you see anyone take the journals from Dr. Weir's office?"
It took Chuck a moment to respond, his mind thinking back to all the people that had come and gone in the past few days. "Yeah, now you mention it. One of the linguists. Said he was going to have another crack at translating the older stuff."
"Great, do you know which linguist?"
"Tall guy, curly hair, young." he reeled off. "He had a New Zealand patch on his uniform," he said suddenly. Chuck could only watch Colonel Sheppard's face as it slowly dropped.
"As in Zeke Marshall, born in Wellington, New Zealand?"
Chuck frowned as he answered, "yeah. Him."
The language department wasn't somewhere John had visited very often, or at all, if he was honest with himself. While he respects the work they did in translating the Ancient database and was always thrilled to see Elizabeth's eyes light up when she found something especially interesting as she translated it, to him it held very little interest. Sweeping his hand over the sensor, he wasn't surprised to be faced with piles of old, dusty books and stacks of papers heaped next to computer terminals when the door opened. There were only a few other people in the large lab and none of them seemed to notice as John entered, all of them seemingly enthralled in the work they were doing although he was sure one of them was crying. Quickly scanning the mountains of books he looked for the ones that were brought back from Gishcar, spotting them neatly stacked besides an inactive terminal. Weaving his way over John quietly sat down in the abandoned chair. Unlike Elizabeth it appeared Dr. Marshall wasn't entirely fond of pen and paper, the pad only having minimal notes scribbled down. Sighing, John began tapping keys on the computer before him, grateful when the screen blinked to life bringing up the last page Zeke had been on. Scanning the document, he confirmed it was the translations he was looking for before sending it to his personal account. John debated taking the journals back to Elizabeth's office, the thought of putting them back where they belonged tugging at his heart strings. Eventually he decided against it, quickly standing and slipping back out of the lab before anyone noticed him.
The doors had just hissed closed behind him when the alarms began baring for a moment before being quickly silenced. Tapping his earpiece, John contacted the control room, relieved to hear Teyla's calm voice.
"Colonel Sheppard, we have just had another fluctuation. It would appear three of our missing personnel have been returned to the City." The words made John's heart stop. Please God, no. "Colonel Sheppard? Are you still there?" Teyla prompted when he didn't reply.
"Who?" Was all he managed to say, his voice coming out in a brittle croak. So much for hiding his feelings.
"Caleb Harris, Oliver McNeil and Captain Buren."
"Thank you Teyla." Breaking the connection John leant against the wall, his legs trembling under him, his heart pounding in his ears. Breathing out, he reassured himself that there was still time to save Elizabeth. Pushing off of the wall he headed in the opposite direction of the control room. Another fluctuation could mean Rodney had found something.
John could hear Rodney and Zalenka half way down the corridor form their lab, not arguing exactly, just discussing, loudly. "What if we programmed a small portable transmitter to emit this frequency?" came Zalenkas heavily accented voice. When he stepped through the doors, John was surprised to see a miniaturised version of the grounding rod, the tall metal spike covered in the same conductive metal Rodney had had wound around the gate. Internally he shivered, the sight of the grounding rod bringing back memories of the massive storm that had threatened Atlantis over a year ago and all that had come with it. Shaking away the memories of freezing rain, Genii soldiers and Koylas' mocking voice in his ear, John tore his eyes away from the grounding rod and the team of scientists buzzing around it, back to McKay and Zalenka, watching as they bickered.
"That may work but I could just cause the wearer to speed up indefinitely. We have no idea how to negate the effects once we no longer need them."
"Perhaps if we invert the frequency it will reverse the effects."
"Oh yes, because it's going to be that simple."
"Well what do you suggest then?"
"I don't know yet."
"Well maybe you should think of something, the capacitors are built, so is the grounding rod. Once we take them to the destination planet it is only a matter of time before the next fluctuation occurs." Turning away, Radek returned to the team gathered around the tall metal cylinder in the centre of the lab, muttering in Czech under his breath.
Seeing the end of the back and forth between the two of them John jumped in, "you just missed the fluctuation."
"What? That's impossible, it's only half ten," Rodney grumbled indignantly looking down at the computer in front of him, reading through the data displayed there.
"Tell that to whoever is doing this." John paused before adding, "we got three personnel back."
Rodney's head snapped up, his face crumpled with worry and his voice strained. "Elizabeth?"
"No." John watched as Rodney's head bobbed before he looked back at the screen, reading the new data. After a minute of waiting John grew impatient. "Did you get anything new?" Again Rodney's head snapped back up, his face showing surprise.
"You're still here."
"Yes," John ground out.
Rodney looked down at the screen again briefly before looking as Sheppard, "For now there's nothing new. The computer software is running outcomes for the portable transmitter reversals. We do however need to pick a planet for the grounding rod to be sent to."
"Okay, let me know when you have it." Turing away John's mind went to the reports he'd emailed to himself. Again the spark of hope bloomed in his chest, small and fragile, but flickering with life.