Chapter 34: So you're saying you made it happen?

"Get to the gate," Major Lorne yelled, urging us to run at top speed back towards the clearing where the Stargate was located. "Brown - as soon as you get there dial it up!"

Lieutenant Brown was running in point, opening a gap on the rest of us as he sped full pelt down the path. We got to the clearing just in time to see the kawhoosh retreating back into the vortex. Shots rang out across our path, forcing Brown to retreat into the trees. I followed Major Lorne as he took up a covered position, using the radio to get a message to Atlantis.

"Atlantis base, this is Major Lorne. We are under attack and cut off from the Gate. Request immediate back-up. Atlantis base, repeat: we are under attack and cut off from the Gate. I counted at least twenty, maybe more. Request back-up immediately."

Breaking off the transmission the wormhole closed before any of our would be attackers could attempt to use the gate themselves. We hadn't sent through an IDC so it would have been an abrupt end if any of them had tried to leave the planet that way.

We'd arrived on M72-656 earlier than day to follow up on an established trading agreement with the planets inhabitants. Rather than the usual friendly welcome we'd been greeted with a group of angry ruffians accusing us of depriving their people of much needed resources. Lorne had tried to talk them around but it hadn't been too long before their behaviour had shifted from faintly disturbing to outright aggressive. He'd backed us out of there but we'd been followed. It was a long walk to the gate and before we'd gotten half way we'd realised the ruffians were tailing us. That's when the walking had turned into running, urged on by the few shots that got fired luckily wide of our position.

Within twenty minutes the Stargate activated and a Puddle Jumper zoomed through, cloaking as soon as it was completely clear of the wormhole. Shots were fired as the Jumper passed overhead, none of them reaching their mark.

"Major Lorne, this is Sheppard. What's your situation?"

"A group of disgruntled villagers have us pinned down Sir," Major Lorne reported succinctly. "They have rifles and show no signs of running out of ammo any time soon. They're currently closing in on our position."

"Hold tight Major," John ordered. "I'm bringing the Jumper around for another pass – see if we can map their positions with the life signs detectors."

"Acknowledged," Lorne confirmed, motioning for all of us to keep low. The villagers were still firing at us intermittently, presumably reminding us not to attempt to access the gate again.

"Major," John reported back a few minutes later. "This isn't gonna be as easy as we hoped. I count twenty four targets completely surrounding you. I'm gonna have to land the Jumper back from your position and flank them from behind."

"Copy that," Major Lorne replied. We heard the whoosh of the Jumper as it passed back overhead. The villagers I could see raised their guns, shouting to each other when there was nothing visible for them to fire at. Turning back they fired a few shots in our direction as if to say 'we can still see you!'

Resigning myself to a long wait in the dirt I didn't notice at first that the shots had ceased. I certainly noticed when the villagers jumped up and started running back through the trees though.

"What happened?" Major Lorne looked over at Lieutenant Brown.

"No idea Sir," Brown replied, rising from his position and heading over to us.

"Colonel Sheppard, the villagers are retreating," Major Lorne called over the radio. "They could be heading back in your direction."

"We're still in the Jumper," John reported. "What happened?"

"Ah ... not sure Sir," Lorne replied. "They stopped firing for no apparent reason – then they got up and ran away."

"We're heading back to your position now," John advised. Looking up I watched with a grin as the Jumper decloaked and came to rest in front of the Stargate. The rear hatch opened and John and Rodney walked out.

"Everyone all right?" John asked, glancing around the clearing instinctively checking for anything out of place.

"We're all good Sir," Major Lorne reported. "That could have been a lot worse – I wonder what spooked them?"

"That was weird," Rodney muttered, almost talking to himself. He had a disturbed look on his face that had John watching him in concern.

"You okay McKay?" John asked. Turning to me he added "Rodney tangled with an Ancient machine this morning and came off second best."

"Hey – Carson said I was perfectly fine," Rodney protested. "A few ... strange things have been happening admittedly but ...," he trailed off with a worried frown.

"What was the machine for?" I asked Rodney.

"That's just it," Rodney complained. "We don't know – the Ancients powered up the room and we couldn't shut it off from the control room. I stood on the platform – big flash of light – that's all it did."

"Let's pack it up," John went into Colonel mode. "No point in hanging around waiting for the bad guys to come back."

We were all settled in the Puddle Jumper when Rodney brought up the subject of strange things happening to him again.

"It could be a coincidence," Rodney said, "but that seems unlikely."

"What's a coincidence?" John asked, powering the Jumper up and taking us in a looping flight away from the Stargate. He dialled Atlantis and entered his IDC as soon as the wormhole was established.

"I was thinking how it would be cool if all their weapons jammed at the same time," Rodney admitted uncertainly, "and not two seconds later they'd stopped firing and were running away."

"So you're saying you made it happen?" John said incredulously. "Maybe that machine scrambled your brain because you're obviously suffering from delusions of grandeur."

Before Rodney could respond we passed through the wormhole, coming out in the Gateroom. John and Rodney were so accustomed to the whole gate travel thing that their conversation hardly paused.

"Are you saying you don't think someone could make something happen just by thinking it?" Rodney demanded.

"I'm saying I don't think you could do it – unless you're suggesting that machine did do something to you," John argued, manoeuvring the Jumper back to the Jumper Bay and parking it gently in the usual spot. John lowered the rear hatch, getting up and leading the way out with Rodney following close behind.

"What else could it be?!" Rodney protested, not deflated in any way when Ronon groaned in disbelief.

"You're losing your mind!" John accused.

"I'm telling you, it's a bit of a coincidence!" Rodney pointed out.

"Well, then, prove it!" John challenged, stepping out in to the Jumper Bay. I followed behind with the rest of my team, Ronon and Teyla. Doctor Weir and Radek were both waiting for us, Elizabeth looking on in curiosity at John and Rodney's obvious argument.

"Colonel?" Doctor Weir looked at John questioningly.

"Everyone's present and accounted for," John reported simply.

"How bad is it and who's been hurt?" Doctor Beckett ran in accompanied by three medics wheeling two stretchers.

"No-one, Doc," Major Lorne reassured him. "We're all fine ... thanks to McKay," Lorne looked at Doctor Weir with an expression as disbelieving as John's had been.

"So he says," John added sarcastically.

"Rodney?" Doctor Weir looked at him expectantly.

"Well, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure," Rodney admitted quickly. "I wasn't even sure it was me at first, but the correlation's impossible to ignore. I saw Lorne's team pinned down, the bad guys closing in - I just thought, you know, wouldn't it be great if all their weapons jammed at the same time?" By the time he'd gotten to the end of that sentence Rodney's confident tone had become uncertain. John was clearly struggling not to laugh now – his amusement seemed to refuel Rodney's determination as he finished his story. "Next thing I know, they're all running away, so ..."

"So you think because you wanted it to happen, it just did?" Doctor Weir asked in a cynical tone.

"It was a little more than that," Rodney defended his belief. When Elizabeth just nodded in a way that said she wasn't buying it, Rodney seemed to decide more action was required. "OK. You know what? Watch this. I'll, uh ...," he turned to Carson and pointed at him.

We all looked on in dumbfounded disbelief as Carson was raised off the ground.

"Rodney!" Carson protested. He stared nervously down at a floor that was now several feet away. John and Elizabeth ran over to him, gazing up in amazement.

"Rodney?" Doctor Weir looked back at him uncertainly.

"Believe me, I find this as disturbing as you do," Rodney admitted, still pointing up at Carson.

"Like bloody hell you do!" Carson said heatedly, clearly less than happy to be the subject of Rodney's demonstration.

"Put him down," Doctor Weir told Rodney quietly. Rodney slowly lowered his hand, watching as Carson floated gently down to the floor.

"Oh, God!" Carson sighed in relief. "Rodney – we need to get you back in the infirmary immediately."

x

One of the other Doctors handled our post mission checkups and cleared us for a debriefing with Doctor Weir once she'd finished with Carson and Rodney. Since the mission had pretty much been a bust the minute we'd walked into the village the debriefing was a short one.

"I wonder what else Rodney can do?" I raised an eyebrow at Major Lorne as we headed down to the commissary for a late lunch.

"I'm not wondering," Lorne disagreed, "I'm worrying. The man's a disaster waiting to happen at the best of times!"

"That's a little unfair," I said in defence of Rodney. "He's usually the one thrust into the role of high pressure problem solver after everything's already gone pear shaped. Speaking of Rodney – there he is now," I pointed across the commissary where Rodney was hoeing into a plate of deserts. Ronon sat with him watching with a look of disgust on his face.

"How's it going Rodney?" I called out, grabbing some fruit and heading over to their table.

"He can read minds," Ronon announced

"I think I'll do take away today," Lorne said quickly, grabbing a couple of items and heading rapidly back out the way he'd entered.

"Coward," I muttered under my breath. Looking back at Rodney I shook my head at the single minded determination with which he was eating – even more so than usual. "Reading minds huh? What am I thinking now?" I held a single image in my head and cleared my mind of everything else.

"Ferris Wheel," Rodney muttered through a mouthful of food. He swallowed quickly before adding "you really have been hanging around with Sheppard too long. Nice trick though – if you can do that all the time I might be able to handle having you around for more than five seconds." He glanced from me to Ronon and back again. "Ronon's mainly been thinking about how he gets to stun me if I get carried away with the power at my command," Rodney responded to my unspoken question about how he could handle Ronon being around.

"So – reading minds, telekinesis, anything else?" I asked curiously, trying to cast a mental blanket over myself to see if that would help block random thoughts from making it over to Rodney's head.

"Super hearing," Rodney replied, frowning for a moment. "Now I understand what you do with the sensors," he said excitedly. "That really is cool – I can't hear anything from you at all – maybe I could do the same thing," his face took on a look of extreme concentration before he smiled in delight. "Hey it works! I can't hear anything Ronon's thinking – that could come in handy."

"I'm glad I could help you out Rodney," I said with a somewhat smug smile. "You said super hearing – do you think that's all the machine did to you?"

"I was already pretty smart," Rodney said immodestly, "but I can actually feel myself getting smarter. I've got so many ideas for things I could do – power usage improvements, systems rerouting ... I think I could even repair the dispersal weapon given enough time."

"Perhaps you should talk to Doctor Weir about priorities then," I suggested. "We need to get the most out of these unexpected ... powers just in case they don't last."

"You're right," Rodney jumped up straight away. "Ronon," he gestured impatiently, "let's go see Elizabeth – see if she'll let me use the Control Chair to maximise the ZedPM." Not waiting for Ronon he hurried out the door.

"I swear I'm gonna stun him before the day's out," Ronon growled, rising reluctantly and striding after Rodney.

I sat back and contemplated the implications of Rodney's new capabilities. If he did retain the extra brain power in the long run there were a couple of things I could think of for him to work on. That led me back to my lab to plan out a course of action, just on the off chance I did get to utilise the new and improved McKay genius.

x

"It's an Ascension machine," John strode into my lab a few hours later, looking flustered and worried.

"The machine that zapped Rodney?" I clarified his meaning. When he nodded, impatiently running a hand through his hair, I felt my insides clench. "Don't tell me," I said sickly, "it's transforming Rodney so he can Ascend."

"Yeah," John admitted, turning back to me impatiently. "And it can't be reversed. If McKay doesn't learn how to Ascend the transformation will kill him."

"But if he's super smart," I protested, not wanting to even consider the possibility of losing Rodney, "then surely he can come up with the solution himself."

"Apparently he's not quite smart enough for that," John dropped wearily into the chair next to me. "Have you ever come across anything about Ascension machines in your research?"

"To be honest Ascension hasn't been at the top of my list of topics, even more so after the whole fountain incident," I admitted. "I could start looking for something now if it'd help."

"Doctor Weir's probably got it covered," John excused the need for me to do anything. "She said she'd talk with Rodney later – try to get him to consider the idea."

"Rodney isn't the most ... spiritual person is he?" I smiled fondly at the idea of Rodney leaving his fate up to a higher power.

"Not exactly," John agreed. We each lapsed into silence, each probably thinking similarly unpleasant thoughts about Rodney's current situation. "Are you done for the day?" John asked suddenly.

"I am now," I agreed, letting John pull me to my feet.

"I need to walk," John said, taking my hand and leading me purposefully down the corridor. We walked for some time, covering a lot of ground and greeting many of the staff both on duty and off. Eventually we ended up in the corridor outside Rodney's lab.

"Should we ...?" I looked at John expectantly.

"I don't know what to tell him," John looked away in frustration. "I'm gonna go check with Radek – see if he's made any progress. You go - talk to Rodney." Before I could protest John had pulled away and walked rapidly back up the corridor.