AN: I'm incredibly sorry about the Morse Code message because this programming won't let me keep the original text. Therefore you can't try decoding it for yourselves because it would be complete gibberish. If anyone knows what to do, I'm all ears. Otherwise, I can only advise you to have a look at the Morse and continue till the men decipher it on their own.
AN2: Morse Code repaired on the 3rd of September! You can now try it for yourself before you get the solution. I have to thank my friend for the idea but she forbade me to mention her name...
Decoding The Message
Rodney's lab. Radek rubbed his eyes and refocused on the screen in front of him. Dr. Simpson coughed somewhere to his left while Sarah didn't even bother to look up from her computer. They had been working on the text for another two hours plus and it was beginning to get into their heads. So, when John knocked on the door frame, no-one said anything.
"Eh, good morning to you three," John greeted their backs uncertainly. His right hand was freshly bandaged and he kept his left hand with Rodney's device slightly behind his back.
Radek turned and licked his lower lip. "What can we do for you, Major?"
John lifted the broken casing he was holding so that they could see it. Radek sighed and wondered: "From where have you torn it off?"
John walked into the lab that still had that empty sensation, but somehow it wasn't as bad as last time because of the knowledge that its owner, Rodney, would return once Carson cleared him. And that had better be soon.
John shrugged. "I got it to give it to you for a small reparation," he admitted. "But I need to talk to you in private, if you don't mind?"
Radek looked at Dr. Simpson and Sarah, got up and walked over to John. They exited the room and Radek closed the door. "Major…?" he demanded.
John leaned to him confidentially and whispered: "Promise not to get too excited."
Radek frowned. Excited? Why would he get excited? There was nothing to get excited about. Not that he knew of. If John meant he would help them, that would be great, otherwise, he couldn't think of anything else. "Sure," Radek responded warily, uncertain about the outcome.
"Rodney's back," John announced smugly. "He's lying in the Med Bay with Carson doing his best to wake him up after having sedated him to treat his injuries."
Radek blinked, then quickly placed his left palm on his mouth to cover an elated yelp of utter astonishment, cheerfulness and real felicity. John snickered at his reaction unable to hold his face straight. It was amazing to watch Radek's joy mirror his own, although he didn't wear it firmly planted on his face. Now he just waited to hear Radek's questions of how and when but he tried to sum up everything he knew so far.
"He arrived last night," John informed Radek gently, "but isn't doing very well. This device," he dangled it in front of Radek's face, "helped him get home even though he claimed it was a Wraith Dart. I need you to examine it as soon as possible."
Radek opened his mouth and John realised that it didn't sound like he wanted. It was high-handed, as if he was forbidding Radek to see his chief officer and friend. John quickly added a sincere apology: "I'm sorry, Radek, but Beckett has forbidden all visits. Something about possible infection and Rodney being too weak."
Radek hung his head in acceptance. "Fine. Hopefully, McKay will get alright soon." Then he stretched his hand out and added: "Give it to me, I'll work on it right now. But…uh…you don't happen to have the part where these wires held it, do you?"
John shook his head no. Radek gave the device a rather thoughtful look, opened the door to the lab and spoke up: "I'll run a diagnostic and see what I can do. Do you think he was somehow influenced by it?"
His speech caught Isabella's and Sarah's attention and they looked up to the pair intrigued. "What is it?" Sarah asked.
"Just a part of a device one idiot has torn off-world," Radek replied. "Carson's checking him now."
"Really?" Dr. Simpson frowned.
"Yeah," John gave Radek a thoughtful look and covered his slip. "Looks like he's been electrocuted and cut in his leg in the process. It must have had sharp edges."
The information about the electricity was new for John as well, Carson had told him when he disobeyed his order and slipped after him behind Rodney's protective curtain, though, John didn't find out about the problem with his heart. Luckily for him.
Radek tsked as he understood John's message that Rodney had hurt his leg and had electricity run through him. Women, on the other hand, gave John a sympathetic look because they were sure it had happened to a soldier, and returned to their work. That was until Radek's comm crackled to life and he answered: "Yes, Peter?"
There was a pause and, "Why would I want to have a look at a coded message?"
Corners of John's mouths quirked knowingly. He thought he knew what Peter wanted Radek to do – he wanted to go over Rodney's message and hint Radek that the man was back.
Radek sighed. "Important as in it's from the one in the Infirmary who has sent me the device?"
John closed the distance between them to stop him if he were about to say something that the women, straining their ears to hear his every word, weren't supposed to hear.
"Jo, Major Sheppard brought it to me a while ago. Beckett had sent him," Radek continued, paying attention himself. "On my way," he said after a moment and turned to Sarah.
"Grodin needs me so you'll do the basic diagnostic," he informed her.
"But…" she tried to argue.
"No, do it. Dr. Simpson, you'll help her, please?" Radek partly ordered.
Dr. Simpson nodded and got up. She was not very interested in translating the message, either, so it was a nice escape for her. "Come on, Sarah," she said and pulled her with the chair to another table. "Let's get it done for our new boss," she added bitterly.
"New boss?" John asked in surprise.
Radek gave him a sheepish glance. Dr. Simpson didn't notice or rather didn't pay attention to Radek's expression and began explaining: "Last evening Dr. Weir held a short briefing, hinting that she would like Dr. Grodin or Dr. Zelenka to take over Dr. McKay's position, showing her preference towards Dr. Zelenka here."
John lifted an eyebrow at Radek who shook his head unhappily. "There was no need, Dr. Simpson," he complained to her. Then he turned to John: "After you, Major. We'll let them work without us acting like a disturbance."
John could hardly believe the tension between Drs. Simpson and Zelenka but he let Radek lead their way out of the lab. 'Maybe,' he thought, 'Kavanagh isn't the only one who would like to be the head scientist.'
The pair walked to the control room together, John out of sheer curiosity. He wanted to know what Rodney had said in the Morse because he had personally transcribed only the first sentence.
They walked silently until Radek asked suddenly: "Tell me, Major Sheppard, will McKay recover soon?"
John sighed. "If only I knew, Dr. Zelenka. Beckett has him in a curtained area, if you know what it means."
Radek shook his head understandingly. "But he will recover, right?" he asked uncertainly.
John lowered his eyes to the floor and tried to sound optimistic. "He's been poisoned and has lost a lot of blood." Then he looked up and saw Radek's apprehensive face. He quickly calmed him: "He hasn't been fed upon, no, it's from the cut on his thigh."
"Dei gratia," Radek breathed out and John smiled faintly.
Just then they reached stairs leading to the control room and rushed upstairs. The room was as busy as usually with technicians working on consoles and relaying transmissions. Peter had been waiting only for Radek at his console with a laptop so he was surprised to see John as well. "Major," he greeted him.
John smiled and motioned behind him. "Conference room?" he suggested.
None of the scientists argued, Peter got up and the trio made their way there. People sent them curious and partly suspicious glances because they knew about Elizabeth's meeting from the previous day. However, nobody found the courage to stop them or ask about their plans. Elizabeth saw them but stayed in her office because she thought she knew why John took the pair away. It must have been somehow connected to Rodney.
The door closed behind the men and they instinctively sat down on the three neighbouring chairs at the right end of the horseshoe-like table. Peter opened his laptop and they could see a window with the energy ruptures and another with dots and dashes of the Morse code.
Peter coughed and informed them: "I suppose you know what happened last night, Radek, so we can skip to the text itself. Sgt. Rogers helped me with the translation while Major led McKay to the Infirmary."
John nodded thoughtfully and rubbed his bandaged hand. "So, what does it say?" he wondered impatiently.
"I'm not sure," Peter admitted. "That's why I needed Radek because I can't let many people know about this, he's been a Scout and knows the Morse. Rogers is better at rewriting letters into it than the other way round…" He let his statement unfinished because he knew others would know what he meant.
Radek leaned closer to the screen. "So you have the message in dots and…eh…" he searched for the right word. "Hyphens?" he added in the end.
"Dashes. Yes," Peter agreed. "Look," he said and enlarged the window with the Morse.
The message was very long and John could hardly believe that all this had been transmitted and they still hadn't had enough time to lower the shield before it had ended. The message was clear, at least in its style. Peter had already put each sentence on a new line so that it was easier to follow. It read:
. -/-/. - . ./. -/- ./-/. ./. . ./-/. . . . /. ./. . ./. ./. . ./- -/- . - ./- . -/. -/- . - -/. ./- . ./- . - ./- - - - -/. . . - -/. - - - -/- . . . ./- - - . ./. . . - -/. . - - -/- - - - -/. . . . -/- - - - ./. . . . ./. - - - -/- - . . ./. . - - -/ /
- . . /- - - /- ./- - - /-/- . -/- ./- - - /. - -/. ./. . - ./- . - -/- - - /. . -/. - ././- . - ././. ./. . . -/./-/. . . ./. ./. . ./. - -/./. - . ./. - . ./- . . ./. . -/-/. ./. . . ./. -/. . . -/./- ./- - - /-/. . . ./. ./- ./- - ./-/- - - /. - . ./- - - /. . ././ /
- - -/- ./- . - ././-/. . . ./. ./. . ././- ./- . ./. . ./. ./. . ./-/./. - - ./-/. . . ./. - ./- - -/. . -/- - ./. . . ./ /
-/- - -/- -/- . - -/-/./. -/- -/- . - -/- - -/. . -/. -/. - ././- - ./. - ././. -/-/. -/- ./- . ./. ./. -/- -/. . ./- - -/. - ./. - ./- . - -/. . - ./- - -/. - ./- ./- - -/-/- . . ././. ./- ./- - ./- . - ./. - . ./- - -/. . ././. - ./ /
-/- - -/. - -/./. ./. - ./. ./. - -/. ./. - . ./. - . ./- -/. ./. . ./. . ./- . - -/- - -/. . -/ /
"Alright, Dr. Zelenka, it's all yours," John said sweetly and Radek frowned.
Peter turned his head and pressed enter. Suddenly some of the Morse code letters changed into Latin ones. The very first sentence was translated completely, others had a missing letter here or there. "I've placed it into a program that can find the same symbols in the whole message and transcribe them. Scientists who don't know Ancient use it for working with Ancient texts," Peter explained. "I had the first sentence to work with so now we only need to add the previously unknown letters."
Both Radek and John eyed the remaining coded letters while Peter waited with his fingers on the keyboard.
"The three hyphens…" Radek started.
"Dashes," John corrected him.
"Right, dashes," he said turning his eyes, and John thought he must have learnt the small gesture from Rodney. "They represent O," Radek added.
Peter rewrote the dashes and the text began to look clearer. Together they worked on, with Radek doing most of the job and John supplying only bits as Peter had asked mainly for Radek. In the end, they got the whole message right and were ready to read it. But nobody wanted to be the one to read it out loud, even put the words together.
"Major," Radek began, "I think you could do us the honour."
John inhaled indecisively but read the message that no-one longed to hear but was vital to the future report. "Atlantis, this is McKay, IDC 03168320495172. Do not know if you receive this well but I have nothing to lose. Once this ends, I step through. To my team, you are great and I am sorry for not being closer. To Weir, I will miss you."
Radek fought back a sad sigh. He wasn't sure whom Rodney had counted into his team but when John read Rodney's message, it sounded sincere and as if he had been certain that his plan to reach Atlantis wouldn't work.
"Wow," Peter breathed out.
"Yeah," John agreed and nodded his head.
When the door to the briefing room opened, they all looked up startled. It was Elizabeth who came in and closed the door again. "What's going on?" she demanded curiously because she could not stand waiting in her office anymore.
"Eh-eh…" John stammered and rubbed the back of his head.
Radek and Peter shared a look after which Peter licked his lips and said: "Dr. Weir, there is something you should see."
Elizabeth was surprised and hoped there wasn't anything bad going on. She worried that, in the end, the session was not about Rodney. Nevertheless, she kept a stony façade as she walked to the men and propped her palms on the back of Peter's chair.
"What is it?" she wondered before her eyes fell on the laptop screen and she read it in her head, her face disclosing her surprise and shock and in the end something like sympathy and love. She schooled her expression just afterwards but John and Radek had caught her off guard. Neither of them commented on it because it was as hard for them as it was for her now.
"Is it…?" she demanded with her voice trembling almost inaudibly.
John nodded. "It is."
Elizabeth swallowed uneasily and her eyes searched Peter's and Radek's faces. Their eyes betrayed them to her. They all felt a rather strange sensation in their hearts. Nobody spoke for a long moment because they didn't know what to say.
Finally, Elizabeth made up her mind that it was enough and was sure John would need to tell his team. "Alright," she began to get their attention, "Peter, copy it into my computer, I'll file it with other documents about that mission."
"Of course, Dr. Weir," Peter said.
Elizabeth continued: "Major, I think you should inform your team. Teyla and Lt. Ford will be delighted to hear that Rodney's back."
John nodded his head although they already knew it, and turned to Radek: "We should check on that two doctors working on the device first."
Radek's eyes were glazed over as he was running different scenarios in his head as to what the device may be like and how the hell Rodney had connected it to the wormhole to create ruptures. John's order snapped him back to the room and he stuttered: "Sure, sure, let's go then."
He looked and Elizabeth, who smiled at him in a strained way, got up and left. Peter cracked his knuckles, packed the computer and followed suit. John gave Elizabeth a weak smile and prepared to quit as well but she stopped him mid-stride in front of the doors.
"Thank you," she said quietly. John turned to her and she added sincerely: "Thank you for bringing him back."
John bowed his head and whispered: "I had promised to. I've never meant to let you down." And then he was gone, jogging through the control room and to his quarters. He needed a shower and then he would search for his teammates and visit the Infirmary. Surely at least one would slip through and find Rodney before Carson shooed them out…