Chapter 2: A fun day in Pegasus

John awoke the next morning to the sound of his annoying alarm clock. He rolled over to turn the alarm off and saw that it was 0500 hours, time to get up for the day. His first thoughts for the day were gee I hope today will be more exciting than yesterday.

After his morning run, he headed down to the mess hall for breakfast. He looked around for someone to share breakfast with and noticed that Rodney was at their normal table. He chose a piece of toast, some fruit and a cup of coffee and sat down across from Rodney.

"Gee McKay, have you got enough food on your plate?" he drawled, as Rodney had enough food for three people on his plate.

"I need to eat because of my hypoglycaemia, and I don't see myself getting much to eat for the rest of the day!" Rodney shot back.

John just rolled his eyes at that comment. "I'm sure there will be enough time along the way for a power bar or two. It should just be a simple mission without any problems."

"Knowing our luck Sheppard, there will be plenty of running and screaming along the way or you'll find something to blow up or maybe a pretty woman to flirt with, Kirk!"

John just rolled his eyes again and began to eat wondering whether Rodney's last statement was true or not. They certainly seemed to attract trouble even on the most straightforward missions and this time they wouldn't have Teyla or Ronan to watch their backs.

"Are Teyla or Ronan coming with us?" Rodney asked.

"No Ronan's not talking to me at the moment and Teyla is busy with Torren, so it'll just be you, me and a couple of Marines" John replied looking a bit unhappy about the situation.

"Okay, Sheppard I have to get back to my lab to give my minions instructions on how not to blow up the lab while I'm gone. See you in the gate room at 0900."

"Don't be late McKay".

John arrived in the gate room five minutes early. The Marines arrived a couple of minutes later and finally, Rodney arrived five minutes late.

"You're late McKay," he stated.

"Sorry I had to make sure nothing was going to blow up while I was gone," McKay replied.

"Okay let's get this show on the road!" John said as he looked up at Woolsey for the go-ahead.

"Make sure you report in three hours," Woolsey ordered as he looked at Chuck and said, "dial her up."

Rodney and John watched the chevrons light up with great anticipation of the adventure to come. They had been grounded for a while now, things had been quiet on Atlantis, and they hadn't been on a mission for a while. What could go wrong?

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

They stepped through the gate and onto MX 745-217 to a beautiful day. The sky was blue and the sun was shining. The temperature was not too hot and there was a gentle breeze in the air. There were purple and blue wildflowers as well as lovely bluebirds that were flying around them. In the distance, they could see snow-capped mountains with a river winding through them and the mountains were covered in forests. Up ahead they could see the ancient ruins they were here to explore. They were just coming for a look today. If things seemed promising, they would come back with a team of scientists in the future. With McKay leading them off course.

The first thing McKay said as he walked through the gate was, "This isn't going to be very good for my allergies. I'm glad I brought my antihistamines with me. Otherwise, I couldn't breathe."

John rolled his eyes for what seemed like the millionth time that day. "So glad you'll be okay! Let's get moving."

"How long do you think it'll be until we get there?" Rodney asked.

"Not long," was John`s reply.

They set off towards the ruins with John taking point and Lt Rivers bringing up the rear, Lt Smith and Lt Jones were in the middle with McKay.

They walked on in silence for about forty minutes enjoying the view until Rodney started to complain loudly. "How much longer? I'm getting tired and I need a rest."

"You're unfit and you need to attend more training sessions McKay," John replied trying to keep his patience with the man. "Ok let's take five minutes rest for McKay's sake."

They sat under a tree enjoying the view. They were still on high alert, because who knows what hidden dangers lurked on any planet that they may visit in the Pegasus Galaxy.

After five minutes of rest, they were on their way again.

About thirty minutes later they approached the ruins. They were very old and falling down in places. You could see four large stone towers in a square formation, with a central tower that had fallen to rubble a long time ago. A lot of the buildings were overgrown by grass and vines, but it was definitely Lantean architecture and obviously at least ten thousand years old.

They wandered through the ruins for a while until they found a room that seemed intact, when they came to a door McKay tried to open it and nothing happened. Then Sheppard touched the door and it opened.

"Of course it would open for your super-strong ancient gene!" McKay said sarcastically.

John posted Rivers and Smith at the door and went inside using the flashlight on his P90 to light the way. McKay followed next, followed by Jones. They'd gone about 500 metres when they came to a control room. Rodney took the lead at this point and instructed Sheppard not to touch anything.

Sheppard sent Jones back to the entrance to let Smith and Rivers know what was going on as the radios didn't seem to work in the room they were in. He then sat on the floor looking bored as McKay began; he pulled out his flashlight to explore the room and the control consoles. After about thirty minutes he asked impatiently, "So is there a machine to make ZPM's or not?"

Without looking up from what he was doing McKay who seemed very distracted replied, "I think there is, but I'm not sure where it might be."

John jumped up and walked over to the middle console which had just lit up. The diagrams on the screen looked remarkably like directions for a map. "If I'm reading this right it looks like it could be directions and they seem to indicate something's below the surface."

"I don't know what that is, so don't touch it," Rodney shooed Sheppard away still not looking up from what he was doing.

In a split second the console started to hum.

"I thought I told you not to touch anything Sheppard."

"I didn't touch anything McKay. It just started humming when I walked over!" John shouted feeling a little alarmed.

All of a sudden a blue light enveloped Sheppard, his whole body became rigid and his eyes rolled to the back of his head. He started to moan, and he was in incredible pain. This seemed to go on for five minutes or more before sparks started to fly out of the console. Then all of a sudden it exploded in a flash of bright blinding yellow and orange light.

Rodney managed to jump out of the way, just as it exploded. He covered his head and curled into a foetal position just as pieces of debris started raining down on him; it felt like a hailstorm of hot molten rock as it hit his back and sides.

Rodney felt a bit disoriented for a few minutes once the dust had settled and he had no idea if he'd lost consciousness or not. His back felt like it was on fire, but that wasn't his first concern.

He slowly got to his feet and started yelling. "Colonel, Sheppard, John are you alright?"

He looked around trying to find the Colonel. He found his flashlight and looked over to the place where Sheppard had just been standing. When he saw that he wasn't there he continued to look around, the entire time frantically yelling Sheppard's name. He was beginning to panic as he couldn't find Sheppard; he was nowhere to be seen.

He'd just vanished…

TBC…

Sorry about the evil cliff hanger, but I'm new at this and had to do it.

Hope you liked the chapter. Please review. Thanks to all who have reviewed so far.