"Whoa! Hold on! He's with us!" Sheppard shouted, jumping in front of one of Calib's men. He looked back at Beckett and the Doctor had put himself between the barrel of the gun and a mound that had to be McKay behind him. By the look on the Doctor's face, he wasn't sure who had startled him more: Jakib or himself.

"Doctor, you all right?" he asked.

"Ah...well...Major?" He blinked and seemed to snap out of his daze. "We got some kind of defensive grid turned off." He hurried back to McKay. "We've got to get him back to Atlantis, now," he said, starting to strap the injured man back down.

Sheppard turned back to the Relarn men, but they were already hurrying in to help. Sheppard got his first good look at the injured scientist. McKay's left eye was nearly swollen shut and blood caked his waxen face. Sheppard had seen more than his fair share of dead men and McKay—He pushed the thought out of his head when he saw McKay's chest move up and down. He was alive and he needed back at Atlantis to stay that way. The Relarn men did as the Doctor instructed and carefully lifted McKay and carried him out of what look like--

Sheppard started forward. This had to be what McKay had been droning on about before they had landed. The walls of the chamber looked like they had been lifted right out of Atlantis. He walked over the control panel and ran his hand across a series of controls and a grid sprang to life on the wafer thing view panel in front of him. He saw that Beckett had deactivated some kind of defensive grid set up to keep ships coming in from the stargate from getting too close to the ruins. He tracked their previous course and realized that they had been just outside of the grid when they had first landed and came in on foot.

He made sure their path back to the stargate was going to be clear. He let instinct guide him as he checked what the device was telling him. He couldn't get the image of the injured Canadian out of his head. Rodney got under his skin and irritated him like no one else could, but he trust him. It didn't matter what kind of fix they got themselves into, he always seemed to come up with a solution that had kept them all from getting killed. Yes, he whined and moaned about it the whole time, but he did it. Sheppard sighed. There was something. McKay didn't let anyone in. Not even Beckett or Zelanka and they were what one could loosely call his 'friends'. He shook his head. No, that wasn't right. Rodney had a lot more friends than he gave himself credit for. Sheppard like to consider himself one of them. He had seen the rare times Rodney had loosened up, but then he seemed to catch himself and pull back into that shell of his. Sheppard could understand the whole smart-mouth/sarcasm as a self-defense thing. Being some kind of friggin' math genius in middle school had been more curse than blessing. The bullies all thought that just being good in school was an excuse to kick the stuffing's out of a person. It had just forced him to be tougher than them. He smiled a little. He had probably been the only eight-grader taking advanced geometry that could still take on two kids twice his size and come out with just a bloody nose. Now, his mother on the other hand, had not like that at all.

McKay had something eating at him and he would keep them all at arms length until he faced it.

"Major?" Teyla came up behind him, pulling him back reality.

He turned. "Beckett found why we were being shot at on the way back here. The Ancient's had some kind of defensive grid on this planet."

"Is it still active?"

He shook his head. "Beckett turned it off, but we probably shouldn't leave it that way, but I'm sure the guys back on Atlantis would love to get a look at it before the Wraith find this place unprotected."

Teyla nodded. "The Ancient's protected this place for a reason," she reminded him.

He nodded. "How are Ford and McKay?"

"Lieutenant Ford is uncomfortable, but otherwise seems fine." Her fine features knitted up in concern. "Doctor Beckett is very worried about Doctor McKay, as am I. We must get him back to Atlantis."

"Yeah," he said, giving the console one last look and then reaching for his radio. "Stackhouse, how are those repairs coming?"

"Almost finished here, sir. How are Ford and McKay?"

"Better if we get them back to Atlantis A.S.A.P. We've located the defense grid that was fire at us and have it deactivated. I want you in the air and headed to our position the moment you can get that bird in the air."

"Yes, sir. We're on our away now. Stackhouse, out."

"Let's get go," he told her, motioning toward the door.

They headed out and hurried to the clearing where Calib's men were gathered. They could hear the agitated voices before they got there. Sheppard and Teyla broke into a run. When they got to the clearing, they could see Ford, sitting up on the backboard, his face a mask of concern.

Beckett bent over McKay, snapping orders at a young Relarn who was helping him. McKay's body bucked against the restraints holding to the backboard as two more men helped to hold him down.

Ford looked up Sheppard and Teyla as they neared. "He just started going into convulsions. Doc Beckett said it's something to do with his concussion and so long without treatment." Fear shown in the younger officer's eyes.

Sheppard stepped forward as McKay's body suddenly went limp. Beckett pulled a syringe out of McKay's arm and watched him a moment.

"Doc?"

"He needs in a proper infirmary, now, Major," the Scottish doctor said, turning to glance at him. "He's got pressure building in his brain from the head injury and if we don't get it down, he may be permanently impaired or worse. He's also got internal injures from the broken ribs that I can't do anything about here."

Beckett didn't have to explain what the 'or worse' meant.

Sheppard started to answer, but the whine of the approaching Puddle Jumper drowned him out.