Disclaimer: Stargate Atlantis is in no way, shape, or form mine, nor do I make any profit from the following story. It is a work of fan fiction necessitated by the three-plus month hiatus between the first 10 episodes and the remainder of the first season!

Ghosts of Prague

By Kerr Avon

5. Elementary, My Dear Watson

"That's it!" McKay typed a command and held his hand palm upraised as he waited for the response. "It's a door control." He squinted in sudden concentration. "There's something funny..."

He typed a few more entries, cursing as he forgot himself and tried to use his injured hand. Soon the requested data was spilling onto his screen, and he was reading as fast as he was able. "It says...this was...a...trash sorting room?" He looked at Teyla in surprise just as Ford returned.

"What have you found..." Ford was interrupted by Rodney's upheld hand.

"This was one of several rooms..." he translated, "that broken be taken...for repair. If found to be irreparable...it was placed in the chute...to be sent to...the salvage room?" He looked up. "Oh, Corrigan's gonna love this...." Returning to his screen, "There the...Servant? Server? Slave?...will retrieve all that can be saved...and...rebirth...the rest."

Ford was confused. "Rebirth?"

Rodney jabbed at the screen defensively. "Don't look at me! It says so right here." Looking back, he continued, "The word I'm unsure of is the title of the person doing the salvage - it's clearly something specific, but it almost assumes that the reader knows who it represents." He shakes his head. "Weird..."

"We can figure it out later; do you know what happened to the Major and Dr. Zelenka?"

Rodney blinked at him in surprise. "Oh, I have a pretty good idea."

When nothing more was forthcoming, Ford prompted, "Well?"

McKay grinned. "I thought you'd never ask." He stood and paced the floor. "If you notice, this chamber is several feet shorter than the corridor outside, indicating something in this wall." He gestured to the wall to which the laptop was attached. "A careful search would have revealed this hidden panel..."

"Why hidden?" asked Teyla, seconds before Ford could ask the same question.

McKay shot her a dirty look. "I don't know. Why do some people hide their trashcans in the cabinet under the sink? Maybe they didn't like looking at it." Shaking his head and ignoring her uncomprehending stare, he continued. "Anyway, Zelenka figures out that it opens a door, and sets up the laptop so that it can open that door." He paces to the wall and demonstrates the wire hookup.

"Now the Major is a cautious man, particularly where other people's safety is involved." Ford gave him a surprised glance; he couldn't believe that Rodney had actually noticed that about Sheppard. "He would have been suspicious of both the hidden door controls and doorway, and worried about boobytraps. He would have made them move as far away and to the side as possible before allowing Zelenka to trigger the hatch." He picked up the laptop and strode to a spot just a foot closer to the wall than the spot where they had discovered the scientist's backpack. "Right...about...here!"

McKay suddenly set down the computer, taking care not to dislodge its attachments, and began moving about on his hands and knees, carefully inspecting every inch of the deck in the immediate vicinity. Teyla and Ford watched him wide-eyed, then glanced at each other and gave identical shrugs.

"Ah-HA!" Ford and Teyla both jumped at the unexpected shout. Rodney scrambled to his feet, then, holding his arms outstretched, herded them both backwards a few steps. "Now, picture them standing there..." he pointed to the spot where he himself had stood just moments before, "to avoid exploding panels and the like..."

"But I thought you said that the panel was hidden for appearance?"

Rodney rolled his eyes. "Yes, but they don't know that. Anyway, they're standing there, Sheppard gives Zelenka the 'go ahead', Zelenka pushes these buttons..." McKay types in the command before Ford can stop him. "And voila!"

In the spot where Sheppard and Zelenka had presumably stood was a hole approximately five feet square. The backpack and laptop had been discovered just on its edge. The three inched up to it and peered down a black, curved ramp that disappeared in the direction of the 'trash chute' in the wall.

Gulping, Ford keyed his radio at his ear. "Doctor Weir? We're going to need men, rope, and flashlights."

---------------------

The Major kept opening doors in the hopes of finding an elevator that would transport them back to the inhabited sections of the city. So far, however, he had just managed to find storeroom upon storeroom of junk, some of it piled to the ceiling. Once a mound almost toppled over on top of him when he finally got the door to slide aside. He had decided to try one last room and turn around to check on Zelenka when his luck finally changed.

Unfortunately, it was not for the better.

The chamber he found himself in was massive and, in stark contrast to everything else he had found on this level, remarkably tidy. Yes, there were still partially-assembled devices, but they appeared to be in the process of being assembled, rather than being broken down. Like the initial section they had landed in, this room had rows of oversized tables set at a shoulder-height or higher. The objects on the tables appeared less haphazard, as if someone ten to twelve feet tall had been working on them. Still, nothing moved. John wandered towards the far end, where a glowing tubular structure stood, surrounded by a ring of complex consoles, mostly dark. As he approached, he saw that it contained a vaguely humanoid shape, approximately the right height to stand at the tables.

As he passed the nearest control console, it suddenly sparked and flickered on, then off. Simultaneously, the lights flared briefly, then receded. Curious, Sheppard went to examine the board.

It took only a few minutes to determine that these control units managed more than the environment in the room; the one that was partially shorted out clearly maintained the illumination levels throughout this entire section of the base and was the cause of the lighting changes they'd been experiencing. "So much for ghost stories," he chuckled to himself, feeling foolish for half-considering the possibility. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, he left the panel alone until someone more knowledgeable could address it. Instead, he turned to inspect the receptacle and contents behind him.

The container itself appeared to be powered at a low level, but had clearly seen better days. The outer glass was cracked, and in one spot completely missing. The entire front canted on broken hinges. Sheppard carefully moved it aside to get a better view of the contents. The object inside was clearly artificial in origin, and like the housing, worse for the wear. It appeared to be a combination of robot and softer materials to make it seem more lifelike; some sort of android, he concluded. It was androgynous, neither male nor female, and its synthetic skin was interspersed with odd wires and metal fragments protruding from unexpected angles. He felt compelled to reach out and touch the 'skin', and gently ran his hand along an arm. He was vaguely repulsed by its cold, clammy texture and pulled his hand back rapidly. An ornate design graced its forehead, some sort of Ancient writing that he couldn't quite make out, but it was otherwise without markings. The design looked different than the rest of the mechanoid, and he found himself compelled to touch that as well. Rather than repugnant, it actually felt warm to his fingertips, and he traced the pattern lightly before withdrawing his hand. As he stared at it, trying to decipher what was inscribed, he failed to notice the lights suddenly coming on in the consoles behind his back.

"Oh, Zelenka will love this!" Sheppard muttered, quirking the corner of his mouth. He resolved to show it to the scientist first thing in the morning when they began to travel again. However, as he headed for the hallway he caught sight of a small attached cubicle out of the corner of his eye.

"Did I just see...?" He took a quick detour, then grinned when his hunch played out. "Yes!" A couple of human-sized cots with some ten-thousand year old blankets were in the space, as well as a few other amenities such as running water. It must been used by the scientists who had originally worked in this lab; perhaps someone had to be 'on call' whenever the robot was at functioning, in case of problems.As he turned to go to Zelenka, he marveled at the bedding's existence. 'If we ever go back to Earth, I'm getting the patent on the material these blankets are made from...'

Forget the morning; his companion's broken leg would rest much better on a bed, covered with blankets. Deciding to wake the scientist immediately and move him to the improved quarters, Sheppard was out the door and headed back down the hall so quickly that he didn't see the android's eyes snap open.

TBC....